Finding Harmony

December 15, 2024
In this stand-alone prequel toThe King of Jam Sandwiches (2020), a 13-year-old foster-care veteran will do whatever it takes to make living with her troubled mom work for both of them--but as the costs mount, so do her doubts. Nana, the last adult Harmony could depend on, died three years ago. Smart, observant Harmony, who presents white, knows how to put her na�ve young social worker on the defensive and redirect her attention away from evidence of parental neglect. Still, Harmony doesn't harbor unrealistic expectations--or hope--for her mother's recovery from addiction. Understanding that rescue will be temporary, Harmony focuses her efforts on maintaining the status quo and family ties. While her mom works and parties, Harmony spends her nights alone. She gets a kind of security from pilfering small bills from her mom's purse and hiding them in an old doll; other sources of security are Mr. Khaled, the elderly Syrian refugee who runs the convenience store opposite her apartment building, and Mr. James, her school principal, who takes her under his wing. Harmony finds friends to walk to school with, too. But as her mother sinks back into addiction, there's no more money to squirrel away, and menacing drug dealers claim the funds Harmony's saved for rent. Mr. Khaled, who knows that building a future requires the opportunity to dream and plan beyond one's daily survival, gently tries to help Harmony face reality. This sobering work is a powerful and realistic portrait of a struggling child. Resonant and haunting.(Fiction. 10-14)

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February 1, 2025
Grades 4-7 Harmony, a character introduced by Walters in The King of Jam Sandwiches (2020), is fighting alongside her mother to return home from foster care. From the outset, with a sympathetic judge allowing Harmony to speak on her own behalf during the trial, we are introduced to a strong, smart, independent child who has been through at least four foster homes. After the trial, a caseworker named Gloria is assigned to the mother and daughter, and the pair moves into an apartment on two months' prepaid rent. With a mother who, for the most part, seems remorseful but unable to change, Harmony is left to rely on herself, saving money and working at a convenience store across the street in exchange for food and cleaning supplies. Finding Harmony is a heavy book that should, perhaps, come with trigger warnings for Harmony's troubled home life, but it is no less a stand-alone and a standout. For readers of Lynda Mullaly Hunt's Fish in a Tree (2015) and Andrea Beatriz Arango's Something like Home (2023).

COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.