Not selected for BF 18 -
I did enjoy this book but was not totally captivated by it.
The main character is "dealing" with her parents seperation, her moms depression & illness, as well as trying to accomplish a record time at her summer swim meets. She is also babysitting for a neighbors autistic daughter & she sees something the parents havent. ( )

https://audrasbookblabbing.wordpress.com/2020/05/30/tiny-infinities-book-review/

Topics to consider: divorce, family troubles, mental illness, drugs, and brain disorders.

Tiny Infinities is a heart-wrenching book that tells the story of a young girl trying to put a broken life together. At first, the book seemed fairly average to me, but the characters and the story line developed more and more until it became a deep, thought-provoking read! Diehl's book doesn't feel like a fiction tale - every bit of it feels so real and raw.

The character development was very fun to read. There were some characters I adored and others I loved to hate. Yet, the author made me take pity on every single character at some point. No one was the "bad guy." No one was the "good guy." They were all simply people trying to make it in a tough situation. Although I felt sad and frustrated at times, by the end, I could feel the hope that radiated from the characters.

If you're looking for a perfect fairy-tale ending with happiness abounding, this is not the book for you. But, if you're looking for something that feels real and emotional, this book is a perfect fit. It's a reminder that life doesn't always turn out the way we wish it to, but that's okay.

~I was sent a free copy of this book for an honest review~ ( )

I thought this was... fine? A segment of my students has an endless appetite for the [b:Rain Reign|20575434|Rain Reign|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1396393170s/20575434.jpg|39843440]/[b:Counting by 7s|15937108|Counting by 7s|Holly Goldberg Sloan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1396225872s/15937108.jpg|19034797]/[b:Out of My Mind|6609765|Out of My Mind|Sharon M. Draper|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347602096s/6609765.jpg|6803732] genre, so I hoped this would meet the same need. My sense is that it just doesn't move fast enough, despite there being a lot going on: Alice's relationship with her dad, Alice's mom's mental illness, Alice's new friendships, swimming, baby-sitting for Piper, whatever's going on in her parents' relationship... I felt overwhelmed by all the plot and issues, and still kind of bored by the pace.

I also felt that everything resolved too easily, and in some unsatisfying ways. It's all well and good that Alice's mom got a job offer, but she's going to get fired in like a week if she has the same attitude at work that she does at home. She needs to be in therapy, and I'm frustrated that the book doesn't acknowledge that. Also, most of the book seems to foreshadow some darkness in Piper's dad, so much so that I expected it would turn out that she's mute because he abuses her. But then it turns out Piper has a rare but treatable disease that means she's going to be fine, and now her dad is cool with everything? The tone of his character did not work for me. Not to mention that it seems dishonest to ditch all of the work the book did to acknowledge the challenges of raising a kid with significant disabilities -- her diagnosis means she'll start to talk again, problem solved!

I'm going to try this with my 6th and 7th grade stronger readers who like the aforementioned titles and see what they think, but I'm not optimistic. (Side note: the cover is way too dark and low-contrast. You can barely read the title, and neither the title nor the design give any information about the content. This one's going to be hard to sell because of that alone.) ( )

Angry that her father has left, twelve-year-old Alice swears that she will live in her family's old Renaissance tent until he agrees to return; but after she meets her mute four-year-old neighbor Piper she finds herself becoming involved in the child's life--and when she hears the little girl speak a word for the first time in years she sets out to prove to Piper's parents that the dismal diagnosis they received for their daughter may be all wrong.

This book was bittersweet but felt so real to me. Alice's emotional upheaval and anger mixed with confusion and her desire to put things back to the way they were before the world broke really resonated with me, and I was so glad that she found a way to find herself again in the end. I loved the interwoven plots and the characters, and the complexity of the interactions between them all. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys coming of age adolescent books, but also to anyone who has lived through the upheaval of divorce at a young age. ( )