About This Book
Reach for this book when your child starts comparing your family to others and feels like everyone else has a perfect, normal life while theirs is messy. Twelve year old Mieka has always felt like an outsider in her own small, fractured family. When her father takes her to Texas to care for her estranged, grumpy grandmother, Mieka is thrust into the chaotic but seemingly ideal world of her cousins. She soon discovers that the perfect families we admire from a distance often have their own hidden struggles and complexities. This is a gentle, realistic story that validates the feeling of being an odd duck. It is perfectly suited for middle grade readers who are beginning to navigate social hierarchies and family secrets. Parents will appreciate how it handles themes of resentment and forgiveness with nuance, ultimately teaching that normal is a myth and belonging starts with self acceptance.
