Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family (review)

It's been just Ben and his father since Ben's mother died, but now his family is expanding: first, Ben gets a new stepmother when his father marries Casey, and then he gains a new baby sister when Casey and his father adopt a girl from China. Then summer means Ben must forego soccer camp to vacation by the shore with Casey's family—all twenty-seven of them. The book skims rather quickly over the fairly significant events of the marriage and adoption to focus on the week's vacation, but this isn't really a new-marriage-adjustment book so much as a story of a boy who goes suddenly from minimalism to excess in the family department ("synonyms for family I never knew about" include "crowded" and "noisy"). Veteran author Rodowsky again demonstrates her skill at bringing a low-key approach to possibly melodramatic events, a technique that makes Ben's narration particularly believable as the voice of a preteen boy; the subplot about Ben's bonding with Great Aunt Nora (known with affectionate mockery as Poornora) is also credibly spun, keeping the connection (and its accompanying messages) modest rather than preachy. Readers will be glad to see Ben finding the pleasures of his new family and will agree that "there was a ton more all-right stuff than not-all-right in my life."