(2) 4-6 Since narrator Fern was six, she and her mother have lived on the Ranch, an isolated "sustainable futurist community" in upstate New York. Now twelve, Fern is completely accustomed to the unquestioned authority of Ranch leader Dr. Ben and his "ideals," which emphasize a reverence for nature. Readers may begin to realize long before the protagonist does that the Ranch's way of life has its flaws; as the story opens, a teen community member has died during a rite of passage. But still, when Mom recognizes those extremes and escapes to California with Fern, it's understandable that Fern finds the outside world scary and, even as she begins to reacclimate, is determined to find a way to go "home." As in Lasagna Means I Love You (rev. 3/23), O'Shaughnessy presents a high-stakes situation and zeroes in on a child narrator's believable emotions. That tight focus on the young narrator even when she is misguided or doesn't have all the facts allows readers to draw their own conclusions based on the gradually increasing information she has -- about the events that led her mother to choose the Ranch, and in separating what can sound like positive environmentalist values from the dangerous reality of a cult.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) 4-6 After the death of Nan, the grandmother who had been her guardian, eleven-year-old Mo begins a series of letters to Nan in a notebook. She relates the difficulties of her next steps: an uncle is unwilling to care for her; a foster parent gives her up, overwhelmed in part by challenges including her stress-induced bed-wetting; another placement that looks like it might work out has its own obstacles. A family cookbook (stolen but later returned) makes Mo wish she had meaningful recipes of her own, and the cooking project the book inspires grows into a food website. She uses that platform to solicit other people's recipes--and to put the word out that she's in search of blood relatives. Mo, imperfections and all, is a winning heroine surrounded by flawed though mostly well-meaning adults, and her hopes, even those that are long shots, come from an understandable desperation for family and stability, which makes it easy to root for her. Secondary characters are fully realized, with personalities coming through in the interspersed recipes' directions and commentary. To be read with snacks at hand, and perhaps also some tissues.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023