Something Like Home - Hardcover

Arango, Andrea Beatriz

 
9780593566183: Something Like Home
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0593566181 ISBN 13: 9780593566183
Verlag: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

The Pura Belpré Honor winning novel in verse, in which a lost dog helps a lonely girl find a way home to her family . . . only for them to find family in each other along the way. From the Newbery Honor winning author of Iveliz Explains It All.

“Trust me: this book will touch your heart." —Barbara O’Connor, New York Times bestselling author of Wish

Titi Silvia leaves me by myself to unpack,
but it’s not like I brought a bunch of stuff.
How do you prepare for the unpreparable?
How do you fit your whole life in one bag?
And how am I supposed to trust social services
when they won’t trust me back?

Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It’s tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt’s house is okay, it just isn’t the same as being in her own space.

So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she’ll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog will help them get better and things will finally go back to the way they should be.

After all, how do you explain to others that you’re technically a foster kid, even though you live with your aunt? And most importantly . . . how do you explain that you’re not where you belong, and you just want to go home?

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Andrea Beatriz Arango is the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and is a former public school teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience. Andrea now writes the types of children’s books she wishes students had more access to. She balances her life in Virginia with trips home to see her family and eat lots of tostones de pana. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her enjoying nature in the nearest forest or body of water.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Time and Space


The drive to Titi’s house takes exactly eighteen minutes.

I know because my current Rubik’s Cube solving time

is about two minutes,

and I solve my scratched-up, faded cube

a grand total of nine times.


I can feel Janet watching me in the rearview mirror,

probably wondering if I’m okay,

and I wish for the hundredth time that I could

twist my way out of her too-clean car,

line my life back up as easily as the sides of my cube,

erase all the ways I messed up this weekend,


so that instead of driving to the rich side of town,

I’d be at my parents’ bright red food truck,

and instead of a black bag of packed clothes at my feet,

I’d be dishing up plates of yellow rice for my friends.


Janet doesn’t actually care how I feel.

She’s just here ’cause it’s her job.

So even though she offers to carry my bag

after we park,

even though I’m sweating through my shirt

and my glasses keep slipping off,


I carefully put the cube in my sweatpant pocket,

lift my bagged-up things with my own two hands,

take a deep breath, ignoring Janet,

and start walking by myself toward my aunt’s door


and my weird

      weird

         new life.


Did You Know?


Most birds don’t recognize their family members

after more than a year has passed.

So it makes sense that I’m wearing

my favorite owl shirt

as I stare at a woman I don’t recognize,

but that Janet assures me is my aunt.


Titi Silvia is a doctor,

but one that looks like a model,

like the doctors on those TV shows

my mom won’t ever let me watch.


And even though I usually try not to care

about the clothes I wear or how they fit,

I definitely care today

as I feel her staring first at my hair

and then at my wrinkled clothes,

moving down to my socks and slides

and then back up to my stomach,

like everything about me

is out of place, different

from what she’d like.


I don’t know how I’m supposed to greet her,

this woman that is basically a stranger

and who looks nothing like me,


so I just shrug at her awkward hola,

wait for her to tell me where to put my stuff,

and then I leave her and Janet talking

and hide in the office,


   aka my (temporary) new room.


My Room That Is Not My Room


Titi Silvia’s apartment is beautiful,

but it almost doesn’t look real.


It’s all white and clean

and full of art that makes no sense,

and I can tell my aunt’s really tried to turn her office

into a bedroom for a kid,

because there’s a big inflatable mattress in the middle

and she’s added a princess blanket that is

pretty babyish

and way too pink,

which she probably bought

because she doesn’t know what sixth graders

actually like to watch on TV.


And if I was here for different reasons,

I’d probably just laugh at the blanket

and bounce on the inflatable bed,


but the problem is,

I’m supposed to actually live here.


Titi Silvia already mentioned

something about Ikea and furniture

as I slid past her in the hall,


and who wants a temporary place

to act like a forever one?


Especially when that place

is with a rich perfect stranger

who the social services people keep telling you

over and over and over


   is “safer” than your parents

   is a “good” solution

   is someone you’re “extremely lucky”


to have offered you a home.


My Aunt That Is Not My Aunt


I hear Janet leave

and I pick up my cube again.

Not because I want to practice,

but more ’cause I want to have an excuse

not to talk

if Titi Silvia decides to come in.


I don’t care what Janet says.

This is not where I want to be.

Especially when my aunt does walk in

(she doesn’t even knock!)

and starts talking to me in soft Spanish

   like we’re not strangers and

this is our shared language,

   like she’s always been around and

this is a super-normal visit

   and not what it actually is.


All I’ve ever heard about my titi

is that she’d never lend Mom money

   when we needed it,

never help Mom out

   when she was sick,


and Dad always tells me

to ask when I don’t know something,

to not keep my questions inside,


but even though I want to ask Titi why,


   why didn’t you help when we needed you?

   why did you wait until now to show up in my life?


it’s hard to ask questions

when you don’t want to know the answers anyway,

hard to talk when your head feels like

   it’s inside a bubble

and your body feels like

   shooting up into the air,


harder, even, than listening to my aunt’s constant


   hola Laura, hola mi amor


and so without looking up from my Rubik’s Cube,

I just lie and say:


   no hablo español.


Yo Sé


The truth is,

I do speak Spanish. A little bit.

Just not the way Titi Silvia does.


Dad was born here

and understands it better than he speaks it,

so I only ever spoke it with Mom.


And if I’m being honest,

whatever we were saying

was more of a mixed Spanglish

than whatever it is that Titi talks.


The food we sold at the food truck?

I got you.

Prices and customer service?

Nobody’s ever complained.


But Titi is fast-Spanishing awkward stuff

about her recycling system

and what my new school will be like,

and it’s not that I don’t understand her.

I do.

But not as perfectly as I did Mom.


Unpacking


Titi Silvia leaves me by myself to unpack,

but it’s not like I brought a bunch of stuff.


How do you prepare for the unpreparable?

How do you fit your whole life in one bag?


And how am I supposed to trust social services,

trust Janet,

when she won’t trust me back?


Questions I’ve Asked Janet


How long will I be with my aunt?

What will happen to our trailer?

What will happen to the things I don’t pack?

When can I talk to Mom?

When can I talk to Dad?

What does kinship care mean?

Why do I have a caseworker?

What even is a caseworker?

Do my parents know where I’m going?

Who knows where I’m going?

How long will I be with my aunt?


Is this because I called 911?


Is this my fault?


Answers Janet...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Random House Books for Young Readers
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593566181
ISBN 13 
9780593566183
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Harder
https://www.edel.com

Neum�hlen 17
Hamburg
Hamburg
22763
Deutschland

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