Half A World Away

"Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata will hit you right in the heart and gut. We meet Jaden, who’s 12, obsessed with electricity and adopted from Romania four years earlier: “When his mother left him, he’d been so out of his mind that he hadn’t even screamed and cried; he’d howled.” Jaden is trying to decide whether he loves his adoptive parents, who are on the verge of adopting another child — a process that Kadohata shows in grim detail. As in her National Book Award-winning novel, The Thing About Luck, Kadohata takes readers to such a particular place — a story like none you’ve read — while hitting universal nerves. Just terrific. (For ages 10 to 14)"