Love Like Sky (Love Like Sky #1)

by Leslie C Youngblood (Author)

Love Like Sky (Love Like Sky #1)
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade
Series: Love Like Sky

"Brims with charm and compassion."--Vashti Harrison, New York Times best-selling author of Little Leaders

"Love ain't like that."

"How is it then?" Peaches asked, turning on her stomach to face me.

"It's like sky. If you keep driving and driving, gas will run out, right?"

"That's why we gotta go to the gas station."

"Yep. But have you ever seen the sky run out? No matter how far we go?"

"No, when we look up, there it is."

"Well that's the kind of love Daddy and Mama got for us, Peaches--love like sky."

"It never ends?"

"Never."

G-baby and her younger sister, Peaches, are still getting used to their "blended-up" family. They live with Mama and Frank out in the suburbs, and they haven't seen their real daddy much since he married Millicent. G-baby misses her best friend back in Atlanta, and is crushed that her glamorous new stepsister, Tangie, wants nothing to do with her.

G-baby is so preoccupied with earning Tangie's approval that she isn't there for her own little sister when she needs her most. Peaches gets sick-really sick. Suddenly, Mama and Daddy are arguing like they did before the divorce, and even the doctors at the hospital don't know how to help Peaches get better.

It's up to G-baby to put things right. She knows Peaches can be strong again if she can only see that their family's love for her really is like sky.

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School Library Journal

Gr 4-6--Eleven-year-old Georgiana, who prefers to go by Georgie or G-baby, is adjusting to life in her newly blended, African American family. She has moved to the suburbs with her mom and younger sister Peaches to live with her stepdad Frank and teenage stepsister Tangie, whose approval she is trying to earn. Meanwhile, she hasn't seen her dad much since he married Millicent. When Peaches gets sick, requiring a stay at the hospital, Georgie feels guilty for not being there because she snuck out to see a friend. This sweet story features themes of family relationships, friendship issues, testing boundaries, standing up for oneself, and first crushes. The story also touches briefly on difficult subjects including police brutality and racism as Tangie is planning to attend a peaceful protest with her college-age boyfriend. It's rare to find a middle grade novel that puts divorce and the complicated dynamics of blended families at the center of the story, a topic that is relatable to many readers. VERDICT Readers will fall in love with Georgie and her "blended-up" family as they navigate tough challenges and new family dynamics.--Sarah Polace, Cuyahoga Public Library System, OH

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Using beautiful prose, Youngblood's debut explores the expansive love only siblings can have for one another, while capturing the heart and soul of what it means to be a blended family. The multilayered characters and compelling story will resonate with readers... Young readers will fall in love with these characters and gain a new favorite author."—Booklist
Leslie C Youngblood
Leslie C. Youngblood received an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A former assistant professor of creative writing at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, she has lectured at Mississippi State University, UNC-Greensboro, and the University of Ghana at Legon. She's been awarded a host of writing honors, including a 2014 Yaddo's Elizabeth Ames Residency, the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Prize, a Hurston Wright Fellowship, and the Room of Her Own Foundation's 2009 Orlando Short Story Prize. In 2010 she won the Go On Girl! Book Club Aspiring Writer Award. Born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and raised in Rochester, she's fortunate to have a family of natural storytellers and a circle of supportive family and friends. Love Like Sky was her first novel.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781368016506
Lexile Measure
610
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date
November 20, 2018
Series
Love Like Sky
BISAC categories
JUV015020 - Juvenile Fiction | Health & Daily Living | Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries
JUV011010 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JUV013070 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Siblings
JUV013080 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Blended Families
Library of Congress categories
Sick
African Americans
Families
Family life
Sisters
Georgia
Stepfamilies

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