Fighting Words

I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up this book to read, solely because it was an award winner. It took me a while to read this little book because some days I just couldn't. While, after finishing it, I think it was incredibly done and tells such an important story... I do not know when I should be recommended to my daughter. I borrowed it for my eBook reader, but I'd buy it if the right price came along because it is a worthy read. A hard read, but necessary. Overall, there is nothing too revealing in the telling, but more of an if you know, then you understand its essence. But again, I don't know when this will be an appropriate read. I think this is absolutely a book that could be recommended during a time of healing and therapy, however, I think it should also be recommended before anything has the opportunity to happen. But then what innocence is lost by reading it before “you know” of such things. Either way, while I struggle with my own questions of timing, this book is needed and I hope those that need it, find it at exactly the right moment.

Amazing and heartbreaking. Since this is about child sexual assault I knew it would be a hard read but it's also funny and inspiring. Della is such a force to be reckoned with and I'm so glad that she gets to have friends and a sister and a foster mom who cares. Francine, her foster mom, is such a lovely person. Her insistence that other people's stories are their own is such a powerful thing. No one is allowed to tell your story and you get to decide how to tell it. That's an important lesson for all of us, but so powerful for kids/teens.

OOOF. If there had been a book with this summary/content from almost any other author, I probably wouldn't have picked it up–I don't tend to go for books about super dark topics, especially not in 2020 because, jeez. BUT I loved Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's previous books so much that I knew I had to read this one, and it is SO GOOD. Like, yes, emotionally devastating and I sobbed for like the last half of if. But at the same time there is a hopefulness and a strength here that keeps it from being just totally crushing, as well as a sense of humor to Della's narration that keeps it moving. This book is so, so powerful and so important to read for I think not only its middle grade target audience but also for adults who work with kids, and just for most everyone? It's so sharp at pointing out the specific ways that the smallest adult actions can change a kid's life for the worse or for the better. UGH. SO GOOD. This book will stay with me for a long, long time.

That said–and this should be pretty clear just from reading the plot summary–this book definitely has a content warning for child sexual abuse, so keep that in mind if that's a trigger for you.

The author's afterword about her own experience as a survivor is also really powerful and something that will probably mean a lot to kids who have also survived abuse.