The In-Between
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- 8,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
For fans of Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle and Life in Motion by Misty Copeland, this middle grade memoir in verse with “stellar writing [and] perfect pacing” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) chronicles a young girl and her family who must start over after losing their home.
In the early 2000s, thirteen-year-old Katie Van Heidrich has moved more times that she can count, for as long as she can remember. There were the slow moves where you see the whole thing coming. There were the fast ones where you grab what you can in seconds. When Katie and her family come back from an out-of-town funeral, they discover their landlord has unceremoniously evicted them, forcing them to pack lightly and move quickly.
They make their way to an Extended Stay America Motel, with Katie’s mother promising it’s temporary. Within the four walls of their new home, Katie and her siblings, Josh and Haley, try to live a normal life—all while wondering if things would be easier living with their father. Lyrical and forthcoming, Katie navigates the complexities that come with living in-between: in between homes, parents, and childhood and young adulthood, all while remaining hopeful for the future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This clear-eyed verse memoir by debut author Van Heidrich follows the "in-between time" during which she lived in a motel with her single mother and younger siblings in the early 2000s. After attending her grandfather's funeral in East St. Louis over winter break, 13-year-old Van Heidrich and her family arrive home in Atlanta to discover they've been evicted from their apartment, forcing them to move into a motel. Once winter break ends, Van Heidrich and her siblings return to school, where they try pretending that everything is normal, even though "going back to school/ from this rather abnormal place/ feels apocalyptic." Friendship and romantic conflicts, and her father's recent whirlwind marriage to a woman Van Heidrich barely knows, incite further emotional turmoil. As Van Heidrich shuffles between school, her father's sterile new house in the suburbs, and the cramped motel room that she currently calls home, she confronts questions of identity and navigates anxiety regarding an uncertain future. With sincerity and care, Van Heidrich skillfully depicts the complexities of housing insecurity, financial precarity, and adolescent growing pains via lyrical text in this unflinching yet hopeful read. Ages 9–13.
