No Matter the Distance by Cindy Baldwin

No Matter the Distance by Cindy Baldwin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this fiction novel in verse based on the author's cystic fibrosis and her life in middle school. Penny Rooney is a 6th grader with a supportive best friend and family. I learned so much about cystic fibrosis both from Penny's perspective, her parents, and also the dolphin who meanders into her creek. Immediately Penny can relate to this dolphin which she names Rose while her father contacts a friend who is a biologist and brings her team to the creek. As time passes, Penny and Rose forge a bond/friendship and as Rose battles a lung infection & Penny battles CF, it becomes critical to get meds into Rose & help her out to the ocean. I just loved so much about this book! Penny is so strong but the pain of CF is a daily, weekly, life long disability that she and her family deal with; the words Cindy Baldwin uses in this novel in verse sing to me, and the beauty in her words open a new world of Penny's life with this special dolphin in her life.

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Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles by Shari Green.

Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles by Shari Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book for the #MGBookChat this Monday 3/23/20 at 9PM EST to discuss novels in verse for middle grades, come join us! This is Shari Green's (@sharigreen) 2nd novel in verse I have read (and loved) and the whole beauty of the sea, seashore, the townspeople , new friends, new family kept me turning the pages! Bailey and her brother are plopped with their grandmother (who they never see) on the West Coast seashore town of Felicity Bay. Her parents have been fighting for a long time and are attending a couples camp to try and rescue their family and marriage. But the longer Bailey and her brother remain in Felicity Bay, the more they love their grandmother and have hopes their parents will reconcile. I loved Bailey's friendship with Daniel, who had cystic fibrosis and her belief in the mermaid who is made of driftwood, as the symbol of making miracles happen, because Bailey is hoping for many miracles this summer. A must read, there is beauty and heartache but Bailey never gives up hope.

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