ALL THE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

A preteen tries to balance desperately missing her mother and slowly falling in love with her foster family.

Ruby “Red” Byrd, a white girl, isn’t expecting much when her social worker leaves her with Jackson and Celine Groove, an interracial older couple who own a petting zoo. But the Grooves are gentle and kind; they barely flinch whenever Red lashes out or misses her mom, who is in prison after a pill addiction left Red effectively on her own. Red learns to love the animals, and her neighbor and classmate Marvin, who is Hawaiian and knows what it’s like to feel like an outsider, takes it upon himself to become her best friend whether she likes it or not. (And as far as Red is concerned, that’s not.) But whenever Red gets angry or distressed, the wind picks up and wreaks havoc wherever she is, and this magic makes her feel even guiltier than she already does for being what she views as an imposition to her foster parents. With heart-wrenching, distressing flashbacks to life with her mother and grandmother before entering the foster system and heartwarming bittersweet moments with her new extended family (Marvin’s parents are the assigned respite family), Lackey balances Red’s navigation of her new reality. Red’s occasional, interspersed letters to her mother add further poignancy.

Painful to read—in a good way.