This is kind of a heavy read. But there are definitely kids who come to the library looking for a sad book!

12-year-old Tasha is heading off to camp, but she's not happy about it. She clashes with her Uncle Kevin, who she lives with, and her neighbor, Cap'n Jackie, who she wants to stay with. She finally ends up going to camp, but when she gets back, things have changed. Will Tasha be able to make sense of what is going on now? Can she deal with more challenges in her life?

This book was well-written and entertaining, but drifted a bit at times. Without a catchy description or cover you may need to take a risk on this book, but you will probably like it if you try.

Eleven-year-old Tash is angry. She doesn't want to go to camp, but her Uncle Kevin needs to travel to Australia, and she and Cap'n Jackie, their friend and neighbor, clashed over the whole business. Tash ends up having a pretty good time at camp, after all, but returns home to find Cap'n Jackie gone: she's had a fall and is in the hospital, and Tash's world turns upside down overnight. She's determined to return a special key to Cap'n Jackie; one that opens up a magical world to her, and that'll make it all better. Cap'n Jackie even said so, so it has to be true, right?

The Key to Everything can be a bit hard to follow. We have Tash, seemingly abandoned by her mother and living her with uncle while her father is in jail. Kevin, who takes care of Tash, Cap'n Jackie, a loving and cantankerous older woman, and Nathan, Cap'n Jackie's nephew, who lives in New York, but comes back when Cap'n Jackie is hurt. We don't get a lot of exposition in this story, but we do learn that family is who you make it. Two major characters, Jackie and Nathan, are gay; something that's very lightly touched on, but it's nicely done. Tash suffers from PTSD and a fear of being alone, while Jackie struggled with agoraphobia. Readers have to put in a bit of work to make all the lines connect, but it's a solid read about family, grief, moving on, and growing up.

The Key to Every Thing by Pat Schmatz, 208 pages. Candlewick, 2018. $17.
Content: G (3 swears, 0 ‘f’).

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE

KID APPEAL: MEDIUM

Tasha, 12, is off to summer camp, but she is not happy about it and she makes sure everybody knows. Her Uncle Kevin, who she has lived with since she was five and their neighbor Cap’n Jackie, who has also cared for and loved Tasha, are her targets. When Tasha returns from camp she is remorseful, but she she runs next door to see Cap’n Jackie, she’s not there. Where is she? Cap’n Jackie fell and broke her hip and she is laid up in a rehab facility. When Tasha goes to apologize and check on her friend, Cap’n Jackie is unresponsive and silent. What is going on with Cap’n Jackie?

Schmatz look at love and loss is heartfelt and tender. It is nice to see a book about a 12-year-old girl who is not neurotic. The cover, however, is not very enticing, so you will have to hand sell this to readers, or perhaps convince a teacher to read it aloud.

Cindy, Middle School Librarian

This middle grade book seemed like a cute read about a girl headed to camp and how her summer would turn out and her life at home when she returned. It was sooooo much more! Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. This book had me laughing out loud, and sobbing, and I was so happy to get to know these characters.

Tash is sent to camp against her will, she wants to stay home with Cap'n Jackie and her uncle and stay in her safe bubble. She goes to camp and that is a small part of the book, the real adventure happens when she comes home and everything has changed while she is gone. This is the story of a girl growing up, breaking, and rebuilding herself with the pieces left behind. Abandonment is a fear for many, but sometimes being left behind will help you find out who is there for you and who you are.

I received a free ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Very good middle grades novel that focuses on coming of age changes in a girl's life and acceptance of others.

Great read!

I loved Bluefish. Really, really loved it. And I really wanted to love this, too, but I didn't even like it. Not because of the subject. It is because there were so many parts of this story that were not plot holes, per se, but were unexplained to the point that I did not really understand or care what happened to Tasha or anyone else. I read middle grade so I know what to buy for my middle school library. If I couldn't make sense of it, I don't think my students will, either.

Tasha lives with Uncle Kevin because her father is in jail. Why is he in jail? Uncle Kevin goes on a trip to New Zealand at the beginning of the story. Why does he go? Why New Zealand? And where do they live anyway? What about Tasha's mom? Tasha is incredibly jealous of Nathan, Cap'n Jackie's nephew. Why is Tasha jealous of Nathan? Nathan is an adult and doesn't even live there anymore. She's not just "not nice," she's mean to him.

Throughout, Tasha is angry. She feels remorse eventually at throwing the magical "key" at Cap'n Jackie before the story began, but otherwise, she doesn't really grow or change. And the ending, with a letter from the Captain, did not make sense to me.

I had high hopes for this book, but from beginning to end, there were too many gaps for this reader.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I gotta be honest, I was a bit lost. We sort of get thrown into the story without knowing much about the characters and really not finding out that much more throughout the book. That does seem like real life, it's not like we have this narrative about everyone we meet, but it makes for harder reading. It also makes it difficult to get emotionally invested in the protagonists. I wanted to love Captain Jackie - I mean, come on, she's an agoraphobe who lives with (made-up?) magical creatures like a dolphin-dragon and her best friend is an 11-year-old autophobe (Tash, Tasha, Kid - she has many names). I wanted to love Tash as she is stubborn, wild, and quirky, and has a lot of growing up to do.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the characters. I liked the story. I liked the themes. BUT I just couldn't make myself care. I do think that children may not need the backstories and reasons why characters are the way they are, so I bet they'd love the book - us adults have a much harder time suspending disbelief. So, all in all, to me, this is a fairly solid novel with important themes and I would recommend it to children and think middle-grade libraries should stock this book.

While I truly enjoyed this book, (I read it in one sitting) I felt a bit confused about who some of the characters were. Some were mentioned often and the characters talking about them knew who they were, but the reader did not. I felt like younger readers may have a hard time discerning who these people are in the scope of the story. I did like the relationships between the characters, but was left wanting more as I felt like I was missing out on large pieces of information.

This is a complicated family story about a group of people that work together as a family but are not related by blood or marriage. There are big issues discussed here-parents in jail, gender identity, parental abuse and neglect, adoption and foster parenting, and big questions like who is your family really? I think some kids will like this one a lot.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. From one point, it was a great story family, growing up and grief, but from the other point, I feel like we didn't have enough information, about the plot, the characters, the relationships. It also seems like almost nothing happened, the plot was pretty quick, but there wasn't a lot in it. I would also have enjoyed learning more about the characters earlier in the story, they were the best part of this book.

This book takes a hard look at what it's like to deal with somebody who's so sick, that they might not make it. I loved the little flashbacks into the past, where Tash remembers what Cap'n Jackie would have said in any given situation. Their relationship was portrayed well.

Some of the relationships were confusing to figure out. Tash lives with her uncle, Kevin. Nathan is Cap'n Jackie's nephew. But nobody calls anybody "Aunt So-and-so" or "Uncle So-and-so". And that gets a little confusing at times.

I liked the analogy of the caged birds in the rehab center. I thought that worked well.

The cover design is nice and clean and fits in well with the plot.

Favourite Quote:

Tash lifted her chin and stared Naomi straight in the eyes. "I call her Cap'n Jackie."

"What's she captain of?"

"Everything."

(Chapter: The Bird Manager)

Tash has the experience that so many people have; to not get the chance to rectify something we’ve done wrong. This is a lesson in life and whether it’s an adult or a child reading this book, when we speak in anger we may not get the chance to say I’m sorry.

I enjoyed this book, and for some reason I see this being a great theater play. I’ve never read a book and thought that, but I could see this being a grade A middle school play that would be enjoyed by everyone.

I received an e-copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.

This would be a good book for a kid who's dealing with the terminal illness or death of a beloved adult, particularly if you want to make sure they see same-gender couples and gender variance in fiction. The protagonist also has an incarcerated father, and I think this story would be helpful for some children dealing with anxiety and anger related to that kind of separation. The way Tash's grief is expressed through anger is usually gendered as a masculine mode of grief, and especially for little girls who might feel they are grieving "wrong", it's nice to know that this book is out there.

Back when I was a kid, you could walk into a movie theatre at any time. You could be half way through the film, and you would sit through it, the lights would come on, and then the movie would play again, and you would get up and leave “where you came in”. It seems an odd way to watch movies, and Alfred Hitchcock was the first director that forbid people to do that, with Physcho.

I bring this up, not because this book like like an Alfred Hitchcock drama, but because I feel as though I have come into this book after it has started, and even at the end, I feel as though I am missing the beginning.

I almost feel as though there should be a cheat sheet.

Once the book starts the real story, then it goes pretty quickly, but it is this lack of knowing what is going on in the beginning that is frustrating. And it isn’t because the main character, Tash, doesn’t know, because she does. She knows who Vanessa and Nathan and Kevin, and all the characters are. And true, in normal conversation, you don’t go around introducing characters, if you are in the middle of them, but there are ways for authors to do that, which still help the reader.

And most of the story is from Tash’s point of view, except for one letter that is never sent, by the Captain. How are we reading it?

Captain Jackie is the lesbian next door, who takes care of Tash, while her “not-dad” Uncle Kevin, is at work. The story opens with Tash being angry at Jackie and being sent off to Summr Camp, because Kevin has to go to New Zealand, and she needs to be taken care of, and Captain Jackie can’t do it.

And the key is an old fashioned key that Captain Jackie and Tash have used to have magical adventures with, only, at the beginning of the story, Tash, who is going into 6th grade, thinks is too babyish, and doesn’t believe in anymore, so throws it at Captain Jackie.

There are many things going on in this book. I like that the LGBTQ factors of the story aren’t stressed, just part of every day life. Of course, this pushes them so far to the margin that the characters don’t notice they even exist, until the very end of the book.

There is also the fact that Tash’s father is in prison, for some reason, which is why Uncle Kevin is taking care of her, and she fears being abandoned. That is only brought up later in the book, instead of earlier, and using it for a theme.

There is also the theme of losing those around us. Captain Jackie has lost her partner, and her cat, and her adopted son, or nephew, and now only has Tash.

I’m not sure who this book is for, and I feel that we walked in half way through what is probably a very good movie. I enjoyed what I read of it. Now, I want the beginning of the book please.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.