This is a gorgeous story about finding yourself and finding your own family, with or without blood ties being involved.

Sage is struggling with the absence of her mother when an opportunity to meet her estranged grandparents for the first time arrives out of the blue. Much against her father's wishes, she decides to visit her maternal grandparents.

For Sage, it is an opportunity to find out more about her mother's childhood, and perhaps reconnect with a set of grandparents she has never met before. In the process, she finds a new friend - and throughout, she has the support of her best friend back home, who loves his own huge Mexican family and feels that Sage should take this opportunity to meet hers.

But it doesn't take long before Sage and her Grandmother Marion are butting heads, although Sage finds that she gets along very well with her grandfather. But as with so many instances in life, everything turns out to be both more complicated and more simple than it seems.

And ultimately, Sage will return from her trip with insights and experiences that she never expected to gain, that can help her navigate the challenging path ahead. This is a beautiful and emotionally authentic book about friendship and family. Highly recommended.

Sydney Dunlap is a master at making tough topics accessible, kid-friendly, and entertaining. Racing the Clouds gently explores a young girl's reaction to her mother's drug addiction and also explores her reconnection with estranged grandparents. The book does a great job showing how drug dependence develops and impacts a family. There are also light moments when Sage adopts a dog and revisits places where her parents fell in love. I connected with Sage and her friends and was sad when the story ended. I'd love to read a sequel to see how the family adapts once her mom returns home.

It was a little slow in the beginning but overall it was a good book. The end seems a little rushed. A little more development would have been good. I can see it used in schools. I definitely want it on my shelves. And I will be recommending this title to my media specialist.

When 13-year-old Sage receives a letter from the grandparents she’s never met, she’s unsure what to do. Grandmother Marion and Pawpaw never approved of Sage’s father, a struggling rock musician, and her mother was estranged from them. But Sage’s mother is away at rehab, and Sage blames herself for the incident that put her there. Her grandparents want her to visit them in Ohio, which she views as an opportunity to mend the rift between her family.

Sadly, this book wasn’t as impactful as I thought it would be. Maybe it’s that I’ve read other middle grade books with similar premises, but the story was slow to start and ended rather abruptly. I did enjoy Sage’s relationship with her Pawpaw. He was more understanding than Grandmother Marion and allowed Sage to have more freedom during her visit.

I also didn't care for the reasoning behind Marion's distrust of rock music. Somehow it felt out of place in a contemporary novel.

Although this book wasn’t for me, I’m still glad I got a chance to read it. Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC!

Sage has mostly made peace with the move to a trailer park in rural Virginia from her cozy apartment in Philly. Even if there are things she can’t stand to think about. Even if life with just her and her dad gets pretty lonely compared to the boisterous extended family of her friend Alejandro.

But a letter turns everything upside down. The grandparents she has never met want her to fly to Ohio and stay with them for a week.

Award-winning author Sydney Dunlap follows up her debut It Happened on Saturday with another compelling story that handles tough topics with care and compassion. Racing the Clouds delves into a fractured family and the effects of opioid addiction, but always from a place of resilience. Sage is an endearing heroine and the deft use of her memories throughout as she circles around what she can’t yet face makes you understand and root for her. But it’s the finely drawn characters of her family members and friends--both human and canine—that create a masterpiece of healing and hope for tweens (and grown-ups!) to devour.

ARC provided by NetGalley

Sage reflects on the events of November 21st, imagining how things might have turned out differently if she had made other choices. After an accident, her family of three relocates from Philadelphia to the Pleasant Valley Trailer Park in Virginia. There, she quickly befriends Alejandro but avoids attending his family gatherings due to his large family and her own complicated family dynamics.

One day, Sage receives an unexpected letter from her maternal grandparents, whom she has never met. Despite her father’s objections, she decides to spend a week with them, hoping to reconnect with the family she doesn’t know and to learn more about her mother, all in an effort to create a better future for herself.

Through this visit, Sage discovers that her father was once an up-and-coming musician, but he gave up his career to care for his family when she was born prematurely. Tension over dating and eventually marrying a rock star led to a fallout between Sage's mother and her grandparents, resulting in years of no contact.

This is a compelling read for upper middle school students, particularly those who feel stuck in complicated family situations, or whose parents are grappling with mental health challenges and addiction. The Q&A section at the end offers a helpful list of resources for kids who might be afraid to seek help themselves.

Sage hasn’t felt like part of a happy family, and when her grandparents invite her to visit for a week she decides to go. Sage wants to bring back something of her mom’s to help her mom find her way back to herself. Sage finds her grandmother very controlling, and when Sage is late to a party her grandparents were having they get mad. Well, Sage gets mad right back and tells them how she feels, how they never got to know her, how they didn’t like her dad, and where are her mom’s things? Dad shows up to bring her home early and the truth comes out. PawPaw says we have to forgive each other and try and do better. Sage finds out more about her mom and her problems. What happens now?
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

You got me…

Crying and smiling and hugging my reading device more than twice!

The story deals with a thirteen year old girl whose dad is working hard day and night while her mom is in rehab. Her grandparents from her mom’s side suddenly invites her for the first time in thirteen years to visit them. Her dad is a bit reluctant about it considering the past but she knows she will find answers about her mom, her parents, their past and what really happened.

Things doesn’t turned out as expected but you, who’s going to read this emotionally packed book, will know how wholesome the book gets as you read.

The sensitive issues are dealt with very amicably and I do feel this is a very important book on complicated family dynamics.

Thank you, North Star Editions, for the ARC.