Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss. ( )

A little girl misses her father and shares her thoughts and feelings as she deals with her father's incarceration and waits for the time when she will visit him in prison. She shares her loneliness, her concern for her mother who always works, an older sister she never sees, conversations with teachers, and how much it hurts when other children laugh at her and say mean things to her. When visiting day is near she can hardly sleep and the "happiness in her soul" is deep.

Critical Analysis: This book will help children make inferences about the thoughts and feelings of others and to view a situation from more than one perspective, it offers mirrors, windows, and sliding doors and will help children evaluate solutions to moral problems and ethical solutions

Favorite quote: "Those who love us help us grow, no matter who they are. They are our true family whether near of far." ( )

Reading Level: 1st-2nd grade
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books 2019

lovvvvvvve some woke picture books!

this is terrifically well written, at least wrt the emotions expressed and situations depicted

BUT i RLY RLY wish they had hired a poet tho to help w the writing. the rhyme/meter scheme is HORRIBLE--inconsistent, unsatisfactory, weak, and slanted. this is a problem mainly bc of how it will cause a person reading the book aloud to trip over their words; a meter tells the speaker HOW to speak; a shitty and inconsistent meter will make the speaker stumble. this will undercut the child's attention, understanding, and reading comprehension ( )