65. The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko

listened on Audible

320 pgs.

2024
Middle Grades CRF

Finished 7/20/24
Goodreads rating: 4.55
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary American city

My comments: Hank is 11 and his baby sister, Boo, is almost 3.  Their mom has an alcohol problem, a major one, and one day she doesn't come home.  After a week goes by and they're totally out of money, Hank has to figure out what to do.  Watching all the problems of a boy who works very hard to be good and kind as well as the thought-processes he goes through are the highlights of this book.  I feel like a lot happens that is rosier than would actually happen in real life - especially with the child welfare system - but it's nice to have a feel-good story with lots of positive people.

Goodreads synopsis:  When eleven-year-old Hank’s mom doesn’t come home, he takes care of his toddler sister, Boo, like he always does. But it’s been a week now. They are out of food and mom has never stayed away this long… Hank knows he needs help, so he and Boo seek out the stranger listed as their emergency contact.

But asking for help has consequences. It means social workers, and a new school, and having to answer questions about his mom that he's been trying to keep secret. And if they can't find his mom soon, Hank and Boo may end up in different foster homes--he could lose everything.

Gennifer Choldenko has written a heart-wrenching, healing, and ultimately hopeful story about how complicated family can be. About how you can love someone, even when you can’t rely on them. And about the transformative power of second chances.

23. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

listened to on Audible - Unabridged (12:12)
narrated by Cassandra Campbell
2018 G. P. Putnam's Sons
370 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction 1952 - 1970
Finished 2/27/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.54 - 98,680 ratings (wowzer!)
My rating: 5
Setting: 1952-1970 northern NC coast

First line/s:  "The morning burned so August-hot the marsh's moist breath hung the oaks and pines with fog.The palmetto patches stood unusually quiet except for the low, slow flap of the heron's wings lifting from the lagoon.  And then, Kya, only six at the time, heard the screen door slap."

My comments: What a beautifully crafted story, how I enjoyed listening to it!  I have a feeling that if I had read it I would've been impatient with some of the description of the marsh, the animals, the winds and grasses and beaches.  But listening to it read in Cassandra Campbell's lilting voice, it became poetry.  Loneliness and aloneness, beauty and nature, described brilliantly.  This is a wonderful piece of storytelling.

Goodreads synopsis:  For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
          Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.