Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

A book of children's poetry about a kid with divorced parents (one of whom lives in an urban downtown, the other of whom lives on a farm), with mixed-media scrapbook-style illustrations, is not really my thing. But it's set in my hometown, so here I am. It's okay. Distressingly little local color (it's not even clear what direction the protagonist's father's farm is from Cincinnati), so no points on that front. I think it mentioned Cincinnati chili, which is the bare minimum, but now I can't find it. As a book, it's not great either. I did like that the protagonist's parents have been divorced as long as she can remember, so it's not a blindsided-by-divorce book or a my-parents'-breakup-was-my-fault book, but rather a how-do-I-live-two-lives book. However, the reconciliation between her two "selves" comes very suddenly and seems unearned. I don't think it's up to much as poetry, either, and the illustrations were just kind of there.… (mer)

More important than enjoyable. Almost no humor - and some is key, otherwise the characters don't feel quite real and I can't be bothered to care about them.

Lots of messages, subtle and not so. For example, the bit about using Morse code to communicate with a stroke patient seems like a good idea, and it's the first I've heard of it.

And though at first I was annoyed that Mom and Josie aren't a team working together to help Josie grow up to be the most capable adult she can be, I came to empathize with Mom having trouble seeing that her baby is growing up, and by the end they do learn to cooperate, so that's good.

3.5 stars, rounded up, because I love the drawings and the literary selections signaling the beginning of each season.… (mer)