Just Under the Clouds

Cora and her sister, Adare, live with their mom in a shabby little apartment in a scary building. But maybe that’s better than having to move again to a place that might be worse. Cora tracks places in her life in a notebook her father left. They have moved a lot since Cora and Adare’s father died suddenly. Sometimes, when you don’t have much, you have to hang on to anything you can and you have to take on a lot of responsibility. Cora does. Adare is different, in a special school, and Cora has to take care of her after school until Mom can meet them. It’s hard — hard to have friends, hard to feel safe — just hard for a middle-schooler to take on so much. When they are forced to move again, the girls get a taste of a much different life.

Author Melissa Sarno has written a wonderful debut middle-grade novel with a story that is moving, complex, and layered, with characters readers can really identify with and care about, with situations that are heart-wrenching and real, with writing that is beautiful. This book deserves readership beyond the intended middle-grade audience.