A Duet for Home
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times best-selling creator of the Vanderbeekers series comes a triumphant tale of friendship, healing, and the power of believing in ourselves, told from the perspectives of two biracial sixth graders living in a homeless shelter.
At first, June can’t believe it: their new home is a homeless shelter? When she’s told she can’t bring her cherished viola inside, she’s convinced the worst luck in the world landed her at Huey House.
But Tyrell has lived at Huey House for three years, and he knows all the good things about it: friendship, hot meals, and the music from next door drifting through the windows. With his help, June begins to see things differently. Just as she’s starting to understand how Huey House can be a home, a new government policy threatens all the residents. Can June and Tyrell work together to find a way to save Huey House as they know it?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Following the unexpected death of her father, her mother's subsequent retreat into silence, and an eviction, viola-playing June Yang and her Chinese American family move to Huey House, a Bronx shelter for unhoused people. Sixth grader Tyrell, who is Black and Chinese, knows Huey House "better than anyone," having lived there for three years; to atone for a cafeteria prank gone wrong, he offers to help June find a place to secretly practice her forbidden viola. Brief, alternating third-person chapters detail June's struggle to adjust, navigating a lengthy bus commute and her embarrassment about the family's new circumstances, alongside Tyrell's mastery of the shelter's rhythms and inhabitants. When Tyrell overhears a plot by the Huey House director to push families out of the shelter after only 90 days "to see lower homeless numbers," he and June know they must act to save it. Inspired by her years of work in the New York City shelter system, Yan Glaser's (the Vanderbeekers series) bighearted standalone moves quickly through its complex plot without forsaking strong characterizations of Huey House's many staff and residents, concluding with a potent message about the power of direct action. Ages 8–12.
