Lasagna Means I Love You - Kate O'Shaughnessy

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Nan was all the family Mo ever needed. But suddenly she's gone, and Mo finds herself in foster care after her uncle decides she's not worth sticking around for. Nan left her a notebook and advised her to get a hobby, like ferret racing or palm reading. But how could a hobby fix anything in her newly topsy-turvy life?

Then Mo discovers a handmade cookbook filled with someone else's family recipes. Even though Nan never cooked, Mo can't tear her eyes away. Not so much from the recipes, but the stories attached to them. Though, when she makes herself a pot of soup, it is every bit as comforting as the recipe notes said.

Soon Mo is asking everyone she meets for their family recipes. Teaching herself to make them. Collecting the stories behind them. Building a website to share them. And, okay, secretly hoping that a long-lost relative will find her and give her a family recipe all her own.

But when everything starts to unravel again, Mo realizes that if she wants a family recipe - or a real family - she's going to have to make it up herself."

📚📚📚 

This is one of the books on a nominee list for one of the book award committees I joined. I feel like I'm super behind reading through the list, so I checked out a whole stack of books, grabbed this one with zero idea of what to expect, and I was blown away. It's a gorgeous story, nothing at all like I expected. The cover is so playful, I expected something very lighthearted and silly, which it was at times, but it was emotional, sometimes heartbreaking, and it was so full of heart.

Immediately, something I appreciated about this story was that it centers around grief and foster care. There are so few books that touch on these topics (more now than there used to be, but still), and I have SO many students navigating losing a parent or other loved one, living in foster care, group homes, etc...I want them to be able to see that experience reflected in the books they're reading, to have that little boost of "I'm not alone in this." 

I will say, my students in foster care likely have a different experience than Mo, and this is something that the story touches on. It warmed my heart that this was something that stuck with Mo and that, when presented with an opportunity to try and do something about the inequity in this system, she takes it. Mo has a big heart, and you can see throughout her journey that she's trying to do the best she can to leave the world around her a brighter place.

One of my favorite things about this book was the sense of community it created. Mo's best friend, Crystal, Crystal's family, and many others rally around her to embrace and support her. I swear, I'm a little dehydrated after reading this from crying at so many beautiful moments. I don't want to spoil anything, but appropriately, the scene where the book gets its title from was one of my favorites of the whole book. I felt like I was there, experiencing things with Mo, and it filled my heart in the same way it did hers.

I feel like I've barely said anything of substance about this book, but my brain and heart are still overflowing from the experience of reading it. I loved it so much that as soon as I finished reading it, I ordered a copy for my school library. I hope my students enjoy it as much as I did.

By Your Side - Kasie West

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"When Autumn Collins finds herself accidentally locked in the library for an entire weekend, she doesn’t think things could get any worse. But that’s before she realizes that Dax Miller is locked in with her. Autumn doesn’t know much about Dax except that he’s trouble. Between the rumors about the fight he was in (and that brief stint in juvie that followed it) and his reputation as a loner, he’s not exactly the ideal person to be stuck with. Still, she just keeps reminding herself that it is only a matter of time before Jeff, her almost-boyfriend, realizes he left her in the library and comes to rescue her.

Only he doesn’t come. No one does.

Instead it becomes clear that Autumn is going to have to spend the next couple of days living off vending-machine food and making conversation with a boy who clearly wants nothing to do with her. Except there is more to Dax than meets the eye. As he and Autumn first grudgingly, and then not so grudgingly, open up to each other, Autumn is struck by their surprising connection. But can their feelings for each other survive once the weekend is over and Autumn’s old life, and old love interest, threaten to pull her from Dax’s side?"

Librarian note: What the hell kind of library has no phones and no snacks?! If two teenagers got locked in my library for the weekend (speaking of...how crazy that I read this book the week before MLK weekend?), there would be so much food for them to eat. There are like four giant bags of candy just at my desk alone. That being said...on to what actually matters.

I have now read three Kasie West books, loved two of them, and been driven crazy by the third. I'm trying to decide if it's a coincidence that the two I enjoyed I listened to on audio and the one I didn't I read in book form...I think it's just a coincidence, but if you're an audiobook fan, you should definitely check Kasie's out. Her audiobooks are great. Is that the most times the word audiobook has been use in one paragraph? Perhaps. I'm ok with that.

This book is a great one to recommend to reluctant readers. The characters are likable and easy to relate to, it's an engaging read, and in a shocking twist, Autumn's friends are pretty awesome. From the beginning, the story pulled me in. Two teenagers ending up locked in the library together over a holiday weekend? I have a few teens who have begged me to help them hide at the end of the night so they could spend the night in the library, so I have a feeling that's a plot line that would capture their attention. I was nervous about what would happen after they got out, and the closer I got to the end of the book, the more nervous I got waiting for one of her friends to do something shitty, but they were supportive, kind, and understanding...a rarity in a lot of books, and an example of friendship that a lot of people could benefit from reading about. Finally, huge shout out to a book whose main character struggles with an anxiety disorder. I have struggled with anxiety for a long time, and until very recently I felt like I was overreacting or being a baby when I spiraled or had an anxiety attack. It's amazing to read a book about someone who has shared that struggle and see that not only is it something that should be taken seriously, it's something others deal with too. Hooray for books that open a dialogue about mental health!