Next Door to Happy
by Allison Weiser Strout (Author)
Twelve-year-old Violet Crane is an only child in a lonely household who longs to be part of the gregarious family that's just moved in next door.
With a mother struggling with anxiety, a father who recently moved out, and no siblings to commiserate with, socially awkward Violet Crane feels like she is starting middle school with less going for herself than that of your average kid.
When the rambunctious Walker family moves in next door, Violet can't help but wish she could become a part of their household--everyone and everything seems so normal compared to her own.
After she meets them, Violet falls in love with all five Walker siblings and especially with Mrs. Walker, who is nothing like her own mother. Violet and Reggie, the black sheep of the Walker family, find that they have an easy understanding of each other, and it doesn't hurt that they are in the same grade at school.
But then Violet overhears a conversation between Reggie and his mother in which she tells him that she doesn't feel like Violet is an appropriate friend. Violet is devastated until she faces a truth--no person, family or friendship is perfect--and realizes just how lucky she is.
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Publishers Weekly
Twelve-year-old Violet Crane is enduring a long, lonely summer when the big, exuberant Walker family moves in next door. Violet's best friend is at sleepaway camp, her sometimes dismissive father moved out a year prior, and her mother has become increasingly anxious, seldom leaving their home. An only child, Violet sees the Walker brood as a "real family," complete with a large fluffy dog, and she is delighted when all five siblings befriend her. She initially encourages her mother to meet Mrs. Walker, a former nurse, but soon begins to enjoy having two separate worlds. Fellow rising seventh grader Reggie Walker, a birdwatcher, shares Violet's introspective nature, and the two form a special bond, until Violet overhears Mrs. Walker call her mother "strange," and asks him not to visit their home. As Reggie details his own brand of familial unhappiness, involving the way his mother wants him to be more like his popular siblings, Violet works to find herself amid ill-fitting old friendships and this confusing new one. In a softly told debut, Strout captures family chaos, sibling rivalries, and the delicate nature of new bonds via two protagonists who bravely build confidence in their unique identities. Characters cue as white. Ages 9-12. Agent: Steven Chudney, Chudney Agency. (July)
Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
JUV013070 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Siblings
Friendship
Families
Family life
Neighbors
Mothers and daughters
Single-parent families
Only child
