Where the Heart Is by Jo Knowles

It's the first day of summer and Rachel Gartner's 13th birthday. But this year it appears that her family, including younger sister Ivy, 8, have forgotten. Instead of the usual birthday pancakes, there's a welcoming pie in the oven...for the new neighbors just moving in. Later that night, however, Rachel is surprised to see her birthday wasn't forgotten after all, and that her present is an almost new, better-than-the-old-one bicycle, cleaned, repaired and greased by Ivy. Getting a second-hand present is nothing new, but Rachel doesn't mind. Ever since her mother lost her job as a school librarian, money has been super tight, and bills have gone unpaid, including the mortgage on their home, Bittersweet Farm.

Money isn't the only thing on Rachel's mind. Her relationship with best friend Micah Sasaki has been feeling different these days. Micah has let Rachel know that he would like to be more than best friends, but Rachel doesn't feel the same way. In fact, she's not attracted to any boy and is beginning to think she never will be. Needless to say, things are tense between the two friends.

To help out her family financially, Rachel takes a job caring for the new neighbor's animals, - two horses, two sheep, two goats, chickens, a baby steer named Ferdinand, and a pig named Lucy, the only animal being raised "for meat."

The job gives Rachel lots of time to spend with Micah at the beach, almost always taking Ivy along. But when a new girl named Sierra shows up with Sam, a girl from school, and starts to flirt with Micah, Rachel finds herself feeling angry and sad and doesn't understand why. As the summer passes, she and Micah are invited to parties, but Rachel's feelings become more complicated as she sees her classmates having typical boy-girl fun and fooling around together, causing her to feel more and more different and afraid to admit what it can mean.

To add to her stress, Rachel's parents are fighting more than usual until they are all finally forced to face the fact that the bank is going to foreclose on Bittersweet Farm. It means moving into a small apartment, giving up beloved mementoes, and finding new owners for their pony Rainbow, an elderly rescue Rachel was given for her 10th birthday. But there is a bright spot in all of this for Rachel - a budding friendship with Cybil Jackson, and a clearer sense of her sexual identity.

This is a coming of age story that really explores what it is like when a family has serious financial problems after a parent loses a much needed job and the impact it has on the children. It's an area that isn't really dealt with in quite the same way it is in Where the Heart Is. And the family's economic difficulties certainly might lead you to think this is a story about coping and just getting by. Or that it is a story about loss - of a job, a home, a best friend. And it is all these things, but...

I think it is more of a story about change. For one thing, the book begins on Rachel's 13th birthday, a milestone birthday, one of transition from childhood to adolescence. Over the course of the novel, Rachel's relationship with her sister Ivy changes as she becomes more responsible for her when her parents can't be. And her friendship with Micah changes as he explores relationships with other kids, especially girls, and as Rachel begins questioning her sexuality, and her passing acquaintance with Cybil. But not all change is bad. Consider the name of the Gartner home, Bittersweet Farm, named for the wild bittersweet that grows along their property line, and which serves as a well chosen metaphor for Rachel's life, which is, to say the least, bittersweet.

Where the Heart Is is a realistic novel, and though it doesn't have a big, major conflict, dealing with the constant stressors that are thrown at Rachel is enough. And, I suspect many kids will relate to Rachel's situation and take comfort in her growth as a person.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was a EARC received from NetGalley

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle.