Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake

Summary from Goodreads:

When a tornado rips through town, twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen's house is destroyed and her family of five is displaced. Ivy feels invisible and ignored in the aftermath of the storm--and what's worse, her notebook filled with secret drawings of girls holding hands has gone missing.

Mysteriously, Ivy's drawings begin to reappear in her locker with notes from someone telling her to open up about her identity. Ivy thinks--and hopes--that this someone might be her classmate, another girl for whom Ivy has begun to develop a crush. Will Ivy find the strength and courage to follow her true feelings?

Review:

Sometimes it feels like I read the perfect book for the perfect moment. This happened to me twice this week. I have a very large pile of books on my nightstand right now (at least 10 library books because all of the books I’ve been waiting for all came out around the same time). Most of them are YA, yet for some reason this middle grade book spoke to me. And it’s a book about a family surviving the aftermath of a terrible tornado. And weirdly, there have been 2 tornadoes where I live this week, a place that has rarely if ever seen tornadoes before.

And also this week, I talked with a family at my library who told me they were currently staying with family on Cape Cod because they had to evacuate their home in Florida (due to the last hurricane). And I guess weather and survival have just weirdly been on my mind more than normal. And after reading this book, my heart breaks even further for the family I spoke to, who don’t have the privilege of thinking about surviving bad weather when they come across a particularly good middle grade novel. They probably think about it every day.

And I guess, long story short: this book makes me so grateful for what I do have. I guess I’ve thought about the short term affects something like this could have, but I never thought long term and I guess this opened my eyes a little bit. I can see this opening the eyes for a lot of young people who, like me, have not had to think about this before. It also opened my eyes to kindness because the community is so good and caring in this novel. And sometimes I really need to be reminded of how good people can be too.

I also loved the art elements to this story. I love the references to poetry. I love the story of friendship and how it’s not always easy to speak your truths to your friends. My heart ached for Ivy after she opened up to how she felt to her crush. So much happens to Ivy in such a short period of time, and I love that she grows and learns from all of it. I also like that she read like a real 12-year old. She ran away from conflict when a normal 12-year old would. She responded to family mistakes and misunderstandings how a real 12-year old would too. She just felt so unbelievably authentic.

All in all, I ended up enjoying this one a lot more than I thought I would. It came highly recommended by a fellow Youth Services Librarian. I’m not sure I would have loved it as much if I read it a few weeks earlier. It was really the right book at the right moment for me. I give it a 9/10.