Tumble

There is so much to unpack in this book. I think that this would be a great read for everyone but most especially for those children who find themselves in a similar situation as Adela. It would be a great group read for parents and children who find themselves in a similar situation. When a parent raises a child as a single parent, for whatever reasons, it's not easy. It's especially not easy when the other parent is not active in a child's life. The active parent has to always play chess. They don't want to talk ill of the other parent but don't want to the child to be potentially hurt. Eventually, children always figure out for themselves what's up and what's down and it hurts no matter how much you tried to save that child from the hurt.


This book speaks to familial loyalties, being manipulated into sacrificing your dreams for someone else's dreams, broken promises, found family, disappointments, and finding blessings within those disappointments. It speaks to nothing is as it seems and yet some things are exactly as they do seem. It speaks to acceptance and making life work within that acceptance.

Adela is incredibly smart and so very many topics were tackled in this book. She handled things better than all the adults.

All I can say is that Middle Grade killed it this year.