LIKE A BROTHER

In Rozier’s middle-grade novel, a foster child has trouble settling into his new Montana home.

Living on the Nilssons’ dairy farm isn’t so bad, as 10-year-old Jake Florester finally has his own room and even a bike to ride. There’s no question that his teenage foster sister, Ozzy, doesn’t like him, but he enjoys spinning an ongoing tale for Libby, a young neighbor from down the road. Jake misses his little brother, Jeremy, whom he affectionately calls “Jemmy”; when authorities took the brothers away from their parents, another family quickly adopted Jemmy, and Jake has spent the last few years bouncing around foster homes (“Seems I’m always the new guy, and always scared”). When he hears that Jemmy may be in the hospital, Jake breaks a rule or three to find his brother—he’s already caused problems in his new home (not necessarily deliberately), and, sadly, he doesn’t have high hopes that the Nilssons will want him to stick around. Rozier’s short-and-sweet follow-up to Missing U (2025), which focuses on Libby and her older sister, Anne, introduces an absorbing lead in Jake. His narration reveals a lonely boy who yearns for a family—he wants to be a big brother to Jemmy, but he also (though he surely wouldn’t admit it) wants to be someone’s little brother. Jake is both sympathetic and convincingly flawed, as he tends to isolate himself from others. The Nilssons, who willingly and selflessly take Jake in, treat him more like a farmhand than a family member. It’s not all doom and gloom—Libby’s grandfather is an endearingly gruff parental figure, and Jake’s allegorical story for Libby, in which Halie leads her fellow “hummie-fish” to a new, safer pond, provides a welcome break from his real life. Vernon contributes simple, memorable full-color illustrations that include depictions of the hummies’ potential enemy and a particularly aggressive chicken.

A refreshingly grounded, uplifting story of acceptance and family.