If you are looking for a middle grade story in verse about families, friendship, growing up, and foster care with an adorable dog and lovable protagonist, Something Like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango is perfect for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's for giving me this book to review. All thoughts in this review are honest and my own.

Something Like Home follows middle school student Laura as she lives with her aunt, questions the meaning of family, and makes new friends, including furry ones.

I like stories in verse a lot, they can tell emotional stories in a more heartfelt and honest way than more traditional stories can, and Something Like Home did this just right.

I thought that Laura was a realistic and well defined protagonist and her voice really made this story shine. I liked seeing her relationship with her aunt develop and grow over the course of the story. Laura's dog, Sparrow, was also very sweet and I liked learning about therapy dogs and the work that goes into training them.

While I liked this book a lot, I thought that the pace was a bit slow in places, and I found myself wondering if it would hold the interest of a middle grade audience. The pace picked up toward the end though, and the ending was good and satisfying.

Overall I think that Something Like Home was a solid four star book, I think that foster care was an interesting and important thing to talk about in a story and I would reread this book in the future.

This book releases on September 12 2023. I will share this review on Goodreads as well as bookstagram closer to time, approximately 2-3 weeks before release day

I really loved this book, and think it touches on so many important things. The main character, Laura, is removed from her home because her parents need to go to rehab. The book, written in verse, takes us through Laura's journey being physically in a new place, and also through her emotional journey as she processes through her feelings about everything that's happened. I also really appreciated the book's focus on therapy dogs and hope it inspires more kids to research that. This is definitely a book that I will be recommending at my library.

Something like Home is a story about Laura. She is now living an aunt she doesn't know while her parents are in rehab. She saves a puppy she is trying to train as a therapy puppy. She wants to bring the dog to her parents rehab, so she can visit them. At her new school she meets Benson. Benson seems to have no friends and Laura doesn't understand why. Read this wonderful book to learn more about Laura and Benson.

This middle grade novel written in verse is so well written and needs to be read by all! It deals with foster care, drug addiction & rehab, dysfunctional families, sickle cell anemia, bullying, therapy and anxiety. It dealt with many heavy topics, but showed hope!

I highly recommend this books!!

"How do you prepare for the unpreparable? How do you fit your whole life in one bag?"

This quote and many others from SOMETHING LIKE HOME touched my heart, helping me see foster care more differently than I ever had before. Many of my students currently live in temporary homes due to various reasons, some even from traumatic experiences like the main character, Laura's, and I believe this book will not only resonate with them on every level, but it also will provide them comfort, a safe space for them to reflect and think about their big emotions, and most importantly, a reason to have and keep hope even when it feels like all is lost.

This MG novel was the perfect subject matter to be written in verse as it takes those big emotions and makes them easier to read and digest. I love verse novels for this reason, they make even the most challenging of topics accessible to all readers. Arango's verse was beautifully executed, varying in style and format depending on the subject and purpose.

I loved that Laura's growth was shaped not only by her aunt but also by two unexpected friendships, one with Sparrow, the stray dog she saved, and the other with Benson, a boy who was also grappling with life changes of his own. Benson's friendship was organic and very relatable, and Sparrow's made my heart swell. I believe my students will truly identify not only with Laura but with Benson and how both were eager to find someone to call a best friend but also apprehensive to do so based on past wounds. Childhood friendships are always ever-changing and evolving, and it's important that students know it's okay that friendships are unpredictable.

SOMETHING LIKE HOME will appeal to readers of Katherine Applegate and Barbara O'Conner for its sensitivity to heavy topics, its focus on family and friendship, and its easy-to-understand, childlike voice.

I cannot wait to buy this book for my library and to speak with my students about it! I know their hearts will find comfort and content with the open-ended conclusion of the book, especially the message that: "Sometimes things happen that are really hard. And sometimes that means we have to shape homes and nests in other places and with other people in our flock." Beautifully done, Ms. Arango!

Thank you, NetGalley for this arc!

This children's book tugged and then pulled at my heartstrings. This is one of the best children's books I have read in a long time. I absolutely loved it.
I just reviewed Something Like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango. #SomethingLikeHome #NetGalley
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I thought this story was really beautiful. It bad so many topics all in one story, but it did it all justice. This story hits on addiction, friendships, growing up, diverse families, and trying to fit in. I would absolutely use this book for middle level readers. I thought it was an honor to get the chance to read this book.

Finished ✔️ Something Like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango and it was pretty enjoyable.
5 ⭐️’s
Publish Day: September 12th, 2023
Kindle Unlimited: No
A moving novel in which a lost dog helps a lonely girl find a way home to her family.
Trust me this book will definitely touch your heart.
I’d agree that it’s a great middle grade read for middle schoolers
Yes, I’d recommend it to those in middle school.
#DeesReading #DeesRecs #DeesBookRecommendations #BookNerds #BookNerdProblems #BookNerdsUnited #BookProblems #BookProblems101 #BookNerds101 #Bookworms #BookwormProblems #BookwormProblems101 #BooksOfFacebook #DeeTheBookReviewer #DeesReadOfTheDay #DeesBookOfTheDay #DeesBookReviewsOfTheDay #BookReviewer #NewToMeAuthor #AndreaBeatrizArango #ReadOfTheDay #BookOfTheDay #SomethingLikeHome #NetGalley

Such a heartwarming story. I think this book should be in all middle school libraries. It’s so sweet and tender. And even though it shares a perspective of a family unit that seems a-typical in stories, it’s not so a-typical in life. There needs to be more beautiful stories like this on children’s shelves so that they can see that love and families exist in many ways.

“Something Like Home” is a middle grade novel written in verse by Andrea Beatriz Arango.

I am honored to have received an eARC from Net Galley and Random House Children’s Books.

“Something Like Home” will be released on September 12, 2023.

This story is about a girl named Laura, who goes to live with her aunt after her parents are sent to rehab. While she is staying with her aunt, she finds and saves a free puppy. Laura hopes to train this puppy to be a therapy dog.

I started and finished this book today. It was heavy, yet hopeful, honest, and at its core about love and family. I recommend this book for upper elementary into middle school.

I loved every part of this story since it told a story that so many of my students can relate to either in their life or the life of a classmate/friend. I know several of my students will enjoy reading this story and taking valuable lessons from it. We need more books like this!

I fell into this book and could not stop reading it. The verse flows so beautifully and tugged at my heart to just keep going.
I learned so many fun and new bird facts while reading this book!
This book deals with the heavy topic of addiction, but it is done in a wholesome way. It is a heavy and emotional book at times, but there is also fun, as Laura makes a new friend and starts letting herself be.

A great book to discuss and read. It shows what it is like to be in foster care, which is hard and something that more people need to understand and be empathic to.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I love books that give us a different perspective of what others go through. This novel in verse is a great book for showing howto treat those who are chronically ill. Sweet simple story with a great message.

At once heartbreaking and hopeful, Laura and the bonds she forms with Sparrow and her Titi are a wonderful frame for this story of the impact of addiction in our communities.

I loved how perfectly/gently Andrea Beatriz Arango dealt with the topics / situations in this story such as parental rehab/the importance of family no matter what and the challenges of trust and friendships in a new school situation.

Something Like Home was unlike any other book I’ve read before. It was written in a poetry style and it took some getting used to, but it was really good. I love that this book can be used to expand viewpoints and horizons as to what a “normal” household looks like. This is a good YA book perfect for middle school age.

thank you to netgalley for this wonderful arc!
4.25⭐️ rounded up
i did not expect to learn so many fun and new bird facts while reading this book.
im still very new to children’s fiction, but i enjoyed this book very much. i also love how Andrea writes in prose + her writing style is so easy to connect to and its so unique.
this book had so many emotional and wholesome moments, it was very very real.
the characters in this book were so easy to root for & love. i loved Laura, i loved seeing her make a best friend, and i loved seeing her get close with her aunt.
did my heart hurt at times when i was reading this? yes. but it was so worth it. this book is so valuable and so many more people should be reading about kids like Laura, who are placed in the foster system, and how it affects them mentally and emotionally. this book also has great chronic illness rep (side character). over all a great read!

I am finding that my thoughts about this book are all over the place just like the written thoughts of the main character seemed to me to be.

It is written in verse from the perspective of a young girl who has been removed from her parents care and placed with her wealthy aunt.

The reader learns about birds, sickle cell anemia, the foster care system, therapy dog training, addiction and rehab, family dysfunction and therapy, anxiety and it was just so much in such a short book that I am left with swirling thoughts that have no place to land.

It does have good lessons to be gleaned and a myriad of jumping off places for discussion especially for a child who can relate to the life these children and families have lived.

Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read it in exchange for my honest thoughts.

In this tender novel-in-verse, Laura feels she let her parents down when they wound up in rehab, and she’s sent to live with her aunt. Laura finds out it’s not easy to belong somewhere, to switch lives and live in a new place. When Laura finds an abandoned dog,she and her aunt take it in. When Laura finds out therapy dogs can visit the rehab place where her parents are she starts working on training Sparrow. Laura makes a new friend Benson but feels he may just be a temporary friend because she will leave when her parents come home. When she is supposed to have a phone chat with her parents, she is told they checked out of rehab. What happens now? Do Laura’s parents come for her? Do they disappear?

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC.

From what I was able to read, this was an enjoyable and sweet story. However, about 30% in and the rest of the epub disappeared and then skipped to the end credits? My review is based on what I was able to read.

This novel-in-verse is a delight. All players in the story are memorable, even those without much to say (namely the protagonist's parents). Furthermore, the characters' array of racial and gender identities, as well as the realistic representation of disabilities, will facilitate open-mindedness among young audiences. It's also rather touching that Sparrow therapy dog is a pit bull - they need healthy media representation too!