I'm starting to think that Kelly is one of my new favorite authors. I loved this even more than Blackbird Fly. It is completely beautiful and manages to be gritty, dreamy, heartbreaking, and hopeful all at once. Even the smaller characters were fully formed and so interesting I would love to hear more about all of them. ( )

I'm not the intended audience, and I found this book more depressing than uplifting. Points for finding realistic ways for kids to cope in terrible situations. Points for teaching acceptance, compassion, kindness. Points for a strong moral compass and Filipina characters. Points for main character who isn't interested in romance and doesn't let herself be pressured. Lots and lots of good themes, but I prefer escapism. ( )

This book is on a 4th-5th grade reading level. It has won many awards including the APALA Award for Children's Literature, the Golden Kite Honor Award, and the Gold Award for Fiction from the Parents Choice Foundation.

I adored sisters Sol and Ming, how close they are, how they’re all each other has, how much of the book Sol devotes to trying to make things better for her little sister. Their life with their stepmother may be thoroughly upsetting but the bond between these girls was never anything less than heartwarming.

I wasn’t much of a fan of Manny, I get that he has a crush on his friend Sol but I didn’t love the way he expressed it a lot of the time. I did however enjoy Sol’s other friendship with Caroline. They meet due to something terrible Sol does and I’m sure there will be readers against Sol receiving a second chance from Caroline and who find it highly unlikely they’d form a friendship after what happened, but I thought the unlikelihood of their friendship was actually part of its charm, there was something hopeful in these girls overcoming that horrible beginning, in Caroline finding it in her to forgive, in Sol finding someone she could open up to rather than take her pain out on, and in both of them feeling a little less alone.

I guess that unlikely label applies to other aspects of this story, too, to one of the adults seemingly turning a corner, to another adult sticking their neck out for these sisters, another adult doing Sol a kindness for no reason other than he could. I guess things like that probably don’t happen all that often in actual life, sisters in Sol and Ming’s position maybe wouldn’t encounter goodness as often as they ultimately do here, but much like Sol and Caroline’s friendship, it’s comforting to read about such things and hope that maybe once in a while it works out like this in the real world. ( )