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"sometimes a child has to act older than they are"

Content/Trigger Warnings: Alcoholism, talk of brute abuse, homelessness, grief, loss of a loved one, hospitalization

Dearest readers, I'm not going to prevarication, I got a flake emotional with this book. This touched on a lot of difficult topics that I take personally gone through and I was a fleck sappy. Information technology had even more of an bear upon since I was reading this during the month of November and feeling a bit homesick. All of that aside, this is such a heartbreaking yet hopeful tale that everyone should take the time to read.

Almost Home follows the story of twelve-year-old Sugar who simply lost her gramps, and her alcoholic and gambling father but ran off again, and now her mother has lost their business firm. Leaving everything she loves in Missouri, Sugar and her female parent travel to Chicago in hopes of a fresh start. But things aren't that elementary. Things have never been more rough or difficult to handle. Merely with the assistance of a timid domestic dog named Shush, a loving foster family, a supportive teacher, and her love for poetry, Sugar will navigate her mode through her hardships with her own grace and positive outlook. She'll shortly come up to terms that while she may not be able to control everything happening in her life, she tin can control how she reacts.

"Sometimes the best matter that can happen to a person is to have a puppy lick your face."

I actually loved the chief grapheme of this volume. I loved how we got to come across her talk nigh her hardships and talk about how hard she works. I especially loved the style she talked nigh her poetry and her instructor. She has a very whimsical personality in this book and an even more than positive outlook. Y'all can't help feel a niggling upbeat fifty-fifty though the circumstances for Sugar are hard and challenging. Despite everything Sugar goes through in this book, she does her best to handle everything with that positive outlook and the wisdom her grandad left with her. Only the bit I beloved most about Sugar is how existent she is. There's a scene in this book where Sugar ends up talking nearly how it'southward all too much for her and having that little part of simply showing how hard she's internally struggling really made her real for my reading experience. This is kind of the office where I became a bit emotional because in my childhood, I besides had to abound upwardly really fast and reading these bits my retentiveness flickers to life and goes "Oh aye, I recall the time when it was similar that." And then reading how hard Carbohydrate was trying to be positive, exist the grownup, just reading how much she internalized, it actually pulled at my heartstrings.

This volume has so many important points especially for a heart grade book, but I think out of everything this books offers, I love how it normalizes how animals can be more a pet and but how truly magical they really are. Our main character goes through a lot of hardship and when she receives this niggling puppy, it seems like she has a friend who on her side through all these struggles. Shush becomes a beacon of honey, understanding, and a source of condolement for Sugar as she handles her father reappearing, her mother struggling to get dorsum on her feet, and trying to notice all the normal among all the chaos. At that place's also a scene where Shush is licking Carbohydrate'southward mother'southward confront during a depressive episode and how it restores a little happiness into her. As the volume progresses, I dearest how important the representation of animals become in this volume and how of import they become for Saccharide.

Unfortunately, I did accept some issues with this book. My biggest issue was things seemed to happen so speedily. While the reading pace of this book is steady, it seemed a lot of conflicts or situations wrapped up incredibly quick or resolved virtually instantly. And my final outcome I call back a lot of readers will have with this book is cypher exciting or shocking really happens in this book. I guess my issue was it became predictable. It was obvious Sugar's male parent was going to come back into the motion-picture show, it was obvious that Sugar was going to get relocated to a loving foster family (even though reality doesn't e'er work like that), and many other points in the book. I feel like this book had the opportunity to be a really emotional read, really dip into reality, and this just didn't drive information technology all the mode home for me like other books have.

"Almost. It'southward a big word for me. I experience information technology everywhere. Most domicile. Almost happy. Virtually inverse. Almost, just not quite. Not yet. Soon, maybe."

Overall, this was a good, solid story to read especially this fourth dimension of year if y'all're feeling a trivial homesick or demand a reminder to be grateful for what you have. And of course, as I mentioned before, this book has so many important topics! From homelessness all the way to how we cope hardships. I find that this is a dandy book to introduce to children to the reality many other kids their historic period face and struggle with every day. I also find this to be a great book to comfort those who are going through like situations like Sugar. A beautifully heartbreaking story that every child should be introduced to.

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Salutations everyone! I'm Malliumpkin! I'm a bi, Native American book blogger and reviewer, who drinks fashion also much coffee & loves cats! 🌻 View all posts past ChapterMalliumpkin