This is a little bit of a younger narrator than what I normally read, but it made the subject matter a bit more digestible I think.
This story does center around a family being homeless and homeless people who may not live in a shelter as they care for an animal. If you find that subject matter to be uncomfortable for any reason, I would recommend not reading this book.
An amazon summary, "Piper’s life is turned upside down when her family moves into a shelter in a whole new city. She misses her house, her friends, and her privacy—and she hates being labeled the homeless girl at her new school.
But while Hope House offers her new challenges, it also brings new friendships, like the girls in Firefly Girls Troop 423 and a sweet street dog named Baby. So when Baby’s person goes missing, Piper knows she has to help. But helping means finding the courage to trust herself and her new friends, no matter what anyone says about them—before Baby gets taken away for good.
Told in alternating perspectives, this classic and heartfelt animal tale proclaims the importance of hope, the power of story, and the true meaning of home." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
This story is told from the perspective of Piper and also the dog, Baby (and kind of Baby's owner Jewel). Piper is a kid whose mother and father lost through jobs through various circumstances, so now her family has moved around to try to find a place to live and gets jobs again.
It essentially follows the story of how Piper's family has to adjust to living in a shelter, different avenues of getting food, and meeting other people who are in similar situations, and learning their stories. The other part of the story lingers around Jewel and Baby. Jewel lives on the streets with her dog, Baby, and she struggles to survive even when the soup kitchen has to turn her away due to her dog (no dogs allowed inside).
That's enough summary.
Due to being told mostly from a kid's perspective, there seemed to be a lot of scarier aspects of being homeless that were just kind of glossed over. They point out that the mom, daughter, and brother were staying in a different shelter than their father at first, but I think it kind of glosses out over the different levels of violence that are known to happen in homeless shelters, more so in the men's shelter than in the family's shelter. Anyways.
I also thought there was too much innocence for their situation from Piper based on what their allegedly experiences were leading up to this point. She seemed too young sometimes, but also out of it or something? Kind of like, "This sucks, but I'll wander over here and find something better about this situation, wheeee".
I just wanted a bit more understanding about the homeless situation. I think the intention was to show more of an understanding for kids about what that world looks like, but I don't think it did a great job of portraying the full scale of the situation. Honestly, the Baby and Jewel aspect seemed to distract from the situation rather than enhance it. It didn't really seem, well sad at all. There were moments where she'd be like, "I sure do miss my friends" but then it would immediately shift focus to something else.
I don't know, it was pleasant enough of a story, but it wasn't great in terms of capturing the homeless situation I think.
Happy reading!
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