Illustrated by Bryan Langdo
This story is about a boy whose parents are divorced. The parents have a good system worked out where the boys stay half a week at their mom's, and half the week at their dad's. Everything is going great, until the mother decides to re-marry. Once re-married the boy must deal with several big changes such as having step-sisters, and his mother moving farther away.
With divorce being so prominent in our society I think that this is a great idea for a book. Divorce can be a difficult thing for children to deal with. I myself have parents who have divorced and both re-married. I definitely experienced some tensions with my step-parents and step-brothers at times.
I do believe that the book becomes almost condescending at times to children in explaining terms like "hard-decision", but depending on what age you are presenting the book to things like that may be necessary. The illustrations of the story add to the experience, helping to convey feelings of the boy. All in all, I think this is a good book to have in an elementary classroom. If nothing else, students who have parents that are getting divorced could read through this book and realize that it is a normal situation, and that they are not alone in their experience.
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