Short and sweet. Jen is a city kid, used to the noise and bustle of New York. When her parents divorce, Jen is pulled a long with her mom's dream to live on a small farm upstate. Jen is saddled with feeding chickens, yard work, and helping run the booth at the weekly farmer's market. Also, every weekend her mom's boyfriend's two daughters arrive to share Jen's bedroom. It's hard to get used to all of these changes! But the tensions are all resolved fairly quickly. I really enjoyed the very charming illustrations of chicks, farm cats, frogs, snakes and owls.

Trinidad Escobar's gorgeous and moving graphic memoir weaves together memories and myths. She grew up knowing that her American family had adopted her as an infant from the Philippines. She was not the first baby her second parents had tried to adopt- an earlier baby had passed away and Trinidad was given that girl's birthday and name, Nicole, to speed the adoption process. Nicole was contacted by her first family as a teenager, which lead to her first visit to the Philippines at 18. This book takes place primarily during a second visit in which she is finally able to visit her first family's home, to learn stories from and cook meals with her brothers and sisters. There is exquisite beauty and deep trauma in this emotionally charged reunion. The second half of the story will be coming in book 2.

This is a fantastic memoir. I listened to it as an audiobook on the strength of knowing only that Megan Rapinoe is queer and seemed cool. She is much more than that. She's had over a decade long career of playing at the very highest level of women's soccer, winning multiple world championships. Along the way she has been passionately advocating for acceptance of LGBTQ athletes, equal pay for women, and for Black Lives Matter. She is four years older than I am, so perhaps it isn't surprising that she had her political awakening earlier than I did. It's such a fierce joy to hear her talk about standing up for what she believes in over and over and over again.