Right as Rain by Lindsey Stoddard
Published by HarperCollins on February 12th 2019
ISBN: 006265294X
Pages: 304
Goodreads

Twelve year-old Rain and her parents move from rural Vermont to an apartment in Washington Heights in New York City. As Rain adjusts to her new life in the city, she is harboring guilt associated with the death of her older brother along with a secret that she can’t share with her parents. Grief is also ripping apart her parents’ marriage. Rain’s father spends his days in bed isolated and depressed while her mother spends long days at work. Rain spends her free time exploring her new neighborhood where she is in the minority as one of the few white residents. When Rain is recruited by the track coach to run on the girls’ relay team, she begins to make friends and feel more at home. Stoddard weaves a lot of issues into the story including themes of grief, friendship, acceptance, family and community. The book eloquently captures the overwhelming feelings related to loss and how people deal with their grief in different ways. At one point the story teeters on the edge of becoming a “white savior” book where the white main character helps save the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood community center from demise, but the book ends up striking the right balance by the end. Give this book to readers who enjoyed Patina by Jason Reynolds and The Ethan I Was Before by Ali Standish. (Grades 4-6) Recommended for Cream of the Crop

Reviewed by Cathy Potter, Falmouth Middle School