Meet Me Halfway

by Anika Fajardo (Author)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

When new classmates Mattie and Mercedes meet and realize they have the same Colombian dad, the two team up in a Parent Trap-inspired misadventure to meet him for the first time in this sharp and poignant middle grade novel about the bonds that make a family.

Mattie Gomez feels directionless after being uprooted from her beloved Minnesota and forced to move in with her new stepfamily in California. So when she meets a girl at her new middle school who looks exactly like her, she's not sure what to make of it.

But her doppelganger, the popular Mercedes Miller, doesn't like it one bit.

Mercedes is used to getting what she wants, when she wants; Mattie would rather be invisible and blend into the background. Mercedes lives in a big empty house with her nanny; Mattie's new home is packed-to-the-gills, twenty-four/seven chaos. Mercedes has a short fuse; Mattie is a planner. Though they may look alike, the two of them couldn't be more different.

Soon enough, however, Mattie and Mercedes learn that they have at least one thing in common: a dad from Colombia that neither of them has ever met. Determined to meet the father they've never known, these polar opposites suddenly have to work together to fake sleepovers, evade their friends, and plot daring escapes from school field trips in an effort to track down him down.

If only they could stop bickering long enough to get the show on the road.

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$17.99

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Sweetly woven.

Review quotes

"A romp of a read! With memorable characters, flashes of humor, and the tension of a high-speed car chase, this book entertains on every page! Fajardo expertly weaves together two perspectives and layers in the power of myth, the legacy of separation, and the uncuttable threads of love. For kids who want to know the truth and are willing to take risks to find it. For all readers who want to see friction - between people who seem opposite, between two ways of living - make light."—Rebecca Balcárcel, Pura Belpré Honor author of The Other Half of Happy
Anika Fajardo
Anika Fajardo is an award-winning writer, who was born in Colombia and raised in Minnesota. She is the author of Magical Realism for Non-Believers: A Memoir of Finding Family. Her books for young readers include What If a Fish and Meet Me Halfway (forthcoming), as well as Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters, the middle-grade companion novel to the new Disney film. She lives with her family in Minneapolis.


Paola Escobar is a graphic designer and illustrator from Colombia. As a child she loved drawing the stories told by her grandmother about their family and culture it was her dream to become an illustrator for children's books.
She is the illustrator of the award-winning picture book Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré as well as many other critically-acclaimed picture books. She has worked with publishers across the world and is proud to have illustrated stories that celebrate cultural diversity and champion unsung heroes.
Paola lives very happily in Bogotá, Colombia, with her husband and their dog, Flora.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781534495906
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
N/A
Publication date
September 13, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV013070 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Siblings
Library of Congress categories
-

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