In a stunning debut, Van Heidrich recounts living in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, with her mother and two younger siblings.Their landlord promised to take care of things while they were in East St. Louis attending her grandfather's funeral. Instead, 13-year-old Katie and her family return to no electricity, a tank full of dead fish, and their dog locked in her crate, whimpering, and covered in her own waste. They must move again-and quickly. As the family settles into a single hotel room, school provides relief and continuity but also a source of worries: Will anyone realize she's now living outside the district? Will her friends discover the truth? Biweekly visits with her father only further Katie's sense of being in an in-between place, heightened by questions of identity: Her mother is Black; her father is White, and her stepmother, whose English is limited, is from Thailand. As her mother bounced between jobs and states in search of new opportunities, Katie strived to support her, suppressing her own emotions. But her mother's avoidance of the reality that she cannot provide for her children makes it increasingly difficult for Katie to remain silent about her feelings. Complex character development will engage readers, and vivid descriptions of the physical landscape bring the text to life. Van Heidrich masterfully describes her childhood emotions as well her mother's confusing choices and mental health struggles with compassion and nuance.Stellar writing, perfect pacing, and a sophisticated treatment of universal themes make this a must-read. (Verse memoir. 9-13)

In this memoir in verse, Van Heidrich recalls the time when her family, whose housing situation had always been precarious, experienced homelessness. Her mother moves thirteen-year-old Katie and her two younger siblings into a hotel, where they try to maintain a sense of normalcy while occupying a single room. Every other weekend, the children go from the hotel to their father and stepmother's house, where there is more stability but also tension. School provides a haven, though Katie doesn't share her situation with her classmates. The first-person, present-tense immediacy of the poems ("My siblings and I / are three volcanoes, / though we are not the same / in how we erupt, / let alone how often") is complemented by the emotional distance Van Heidrich as the adult author brings to the story. Though she relates the events in the voice of a young adolescent, she also widens the perspective, allowing Katie to empathize with her parents and recognize that they are fighting their own demons. The story concludes on a hopeful but clear-eyed note: "I want to be grateful, but / I am also frustrated / and angry, / though that doesn't feel right." Van Heidrich doesn't have all the answers, but she reaches an emotional inflection point that she shares with readers. Sarah Rettger

In a stunning debut, Van Heidrich recounts living in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, with her mother and two younger siblings.Their landlord promised to take care of things while they were in East St. Louis attending her grandfather's funeral. Instead, 13-year-old Katie and her family return to no electricity, a tank full of dead fish, and their dog locked in her crate, whimpering, and covered in her own waste. They must move again-and quickly. As the family settles into a single hotel room, school provides relief and continuity but also a source of worries: Will anyone realize she's now living outside the district? Will her friends discover the truth? Biweekly visits with her father only further Katie's sense of being in an in-between place, heightened by questions of identity: Her mother is Black; her father is White, and her stepmother, whose English is limited, is from Thailand. As her mother bounced between jobs and states in search of new opportunities, Katie strived to support her, suppressing her own emotions. But her mother's avoidance of the reality that she cannot provide for her children makes it increasingly difficult for Katie to remain silent about her feelings. Complex character development will engage readers, and vivid descriptions of the physical landscape bring the text to life. Van Heidrich masterfully describes her childhood emotions as well her mother's confusing choices and mental health struggles with compassion and nuance.Stellar writing, perfect pacing, and a sophisticated treatment of universal themes make this a must-read. (Verse memoir. 9-13)