FINISHED: 
Mosier, Paul. (2017). Train I Ride. New York: HarperCollins.

[After her grandmother dies and she is without guardianship in Palm Springs, 12 year old Rydr is put on a train from LA to Chicago, where she will eventually live with a great uncle that she doesn’t know.  Along the way, there is an assorted lot of others on the train with whom Rydr interacts to pass the time including Neal, a gay man who works the snack counter and gives Rydr food (she runs out of money early on), a bunch of boy scouts (one of whom introduces her to Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, and her heart to first love), and Dorothea, the Amtrak employee charged with watching over Rydr on her trip.  Mosier crafts for Rydr a personal journey where she not only learns, from befriending bunch of caring strangers, to forgive those who let her down in her past, but also to forgive and accept herself in order to move forward.  The compressed time frame of the slim novel suits the subject well, giving Rydr’s transformation more immediacy and power, as she goes from initially being coy and telling lies, to building relationships and opening up to the truth, a truth that we become privy to as the novel travels along.  Powerful, moving, and perfect for fans of Holly Goldberg Sloan, Lisa Graff, and the like.]

STARTED:
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. (2015). The War That Saved My Life. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[Rereading one of "my" Newbery Honor books before I read the sequel (due in October) that Penguin graciously sent me an ARC of.]

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