Lizzie Flying Solo by Nanci Turner Steveson
Published by HarperCollins on April 16th 2019
ISBN: 0062673181
Pages: 336
Goodreads

Lizzie and her Mom move to a homeless shelter (Good Hope: A Home for Families in Transition) after her father is arrested for embezzlement. Lizzie is embarrassed and not sure if her father is guilty or not and is sad to leave her home behind. At her new school, she avoids making new friends for fear they might not like her because of her family situation — even convincing her teacher to let her work alone on a group project. Despite Lizzie’s reluctance to make connections, she ends up working at the stable, making friends at the stable, helping her friends, and devoting herself to working with a troubled young pony who she dreams of owning. Lizzie eventually does come to understand that she has no reason to feel shame for what her father may have done and the importance of sharing with friends. Author Nanci Turner Steveson discusses homeslessness in America and her own brush at almost-homelessness in the author’s note.

Recommended for Cream of the Crop

Reviewed by Karen Sandlin Silverman, Mt. Ararat Middle School, Topsham