Relative Strangers

February 5, 2018
High school senior Jules has just learned that she lived with a foster family for 19 months as a baby—her mother was an alcoholic and couldn’t care for Jules until she got sober. Feeling betrayed, Jules contacts her long-ago foster brother, Luke, against her mother’s wishes. Luke, a piano prodigy now in college, has longed for this reunion for years, and when the two reconnect, Jules soaks up everything Luke can tell her about her past. Jules has long had an uneasy relationship with her two best friends, the time she’s spending with Luke is straining things with her mother, and in a further complication, Jules is starting to fall for him, too. Garner (Phantom Limbs) weaves a complex story, with Jules gaining her foster family back only to risk losing them again: her former foster mother is dying of cancer. Garner sensitively explores the tensions that can arise between close friends, but she allows questions of what makes a family to remain the heart of Jules’s story. Ages 14–up. Agent: John M. Cusick, Folio Literary Management.

February 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-Eighteen-year-old Jules is on a hunt to find a baby picture for her senior yearbook. She thought that this would be simple, but soon finds herself having trouble locating any picture before she was three years old. She wouldn't put it past her ex-addict mother to not take pictures of her in her first few years of life, but she finds it bizarre and she is determined to know why. Digging in the uncharted territory that is her mother's closet, she finds something that would change her life forever; foster care papers, with her name on them. Jules, in a fog of questions, is adamant about finding answers to her past. She finds her foster brother on Facebook. Jules learns that she once had a loving mother, father, and brother. Feeling betrayed, she dreams of what could have been and sets out to get her questions answered. She meets her foster family and they are all she's ever dreamed of-but what she wasn't expecting is to develop feelings for her foster brother. These feelings eat away at her, and her decisions will affect everyone in her life. This is a fast-paced, captivating novel from beginning to end. Readers won't be able to put this book down. VERDICT A must-have for YA shelves.-Amanda LeMay, Neptune Township Public Library, NJ

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2018
A teen's discovery that she spent 19 months in foster care as an infant sends her searching for answers.Jules' single mom, an addict in long-term recovery who has kept Jules' origins secret, prefers painting in her studio to spending time with her daughter (mother and daughter are assumed white). Confronted with evidence of Jules' placement in foster care, her mom says only that she relinquished her during a one-time relapse. Jules' friends Gab, cherished daughter of Jewish psychologists, and Leila, adopted by affluent parents from a Ukrainian orphanage, encourage her to seek her foster family. Through social media she connects with former foster brother Luke and learns his Jewish parents longed to adopt her and were heartbroken when she was returned to her mother. With Luke's mother battling cancer, Jules spends a reunion weekend with his loving, financially comfortable family, contrasting their lives with the neglect she's experienced. She also crushes over Luke (amid titillating fears it's incestuous). Like Eli--Jules' gay, goth barista friend--Luke's an underdeveloped character. The demographically atypical depiction of foster care raises questions: why wasn't Jules placed with relatives? Why did Luke's family foster when their goal was to adopt? However, the stronger final chapters honor the myriad complexities of family life.Despite flaws, Jules' hard-won insights into what families can give us and what we must find and create on our own make for a moving read. (Fiction. 14-18)

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July 1, 2018
Eighteen-year-old Jules and her aloof, former-alcoholic single mother are a family of two until Jules learns she spent time in foster care as a baby. Jules reconnects with her former family; they're warm and welcoming, but Jules struggles with feeling attracted to her affectionate foster brother. This realistic drama explores a variety of unique family dynamics with sensitivity and depth.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)