MY SO-CALLED FAMILY

A tough kid earns a family.

Twelve-year-old Ashley Dalton, who prefers to be called Ash, has one refuge in the world: a walnut tree in the yard of her foster mother’s rental house, where she lives along with her foster mother’s volatile son, his girlfriend, and their baby, who shares a room with Ash. Middle school, where Ash gets bullied for being unfeminine in her clothing and appearance, is scary and threatening. And then, making things worse, her new social studies teacher assigns the class to draw family trees. Ash’s past is no one’s business but her own. Eventually, with the help of her friends Gentry Noble (a gentle boy who’s lost his own mother) and Joss Cruz (a supremely cool girl who’s also concealing family secrets)—along with adults who listen to Ash, appreciate her talents, and ask the students to consider what they don’t know—she finds the courage to confide in a teacher and her friends about the trouble she’s in. Gordon’s middle-grade debut is gritty, messy, and honest, with complex, nuanced characters navigating a realistically complex world that includes abuse, drug use, and homophobia. Ash’s simple request at the end—“I want to live with people who actually care about me”—feels earned, and attainable. Ash and Gentry read white, and Joss is cued Latine.

A finely drawn and cleanly written story that will give readers hope.