This was the National Book Award winner for YA last year and it is so deserving of all of the accolades! This story of three separately adopted siblings, that find each other in their teens is a smart and powerful story about family. There is so much to unpack: nature vs nurture, fostering and adoption, teen pregnancy, and racial bias to name a few. Like much YA, it was a little heavy on teen melodrama (especially in Maya's case with regards to fighting with her girlfriend) which felt odd at times against the backdrop of the terribly sad and difficult path these three children were on. I do have a vague recollection of a little melodrama at that age, and it probably appeals to the teens reading it! Though, I think Benway did an exceptional job of fully fleshing out the parents in the story, making it appealing for older audiences. It's great food for thought on raising kids and the kind of parents we want to be.
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