Kinda Like Brothers by Coe Booth (review)

Eleven-year-old Jarrett is used to the continual stream of infants and toddlers who move through his home. It’s all part of his mother’s job of providing foster care, and he’s even taught himself to enjoy the babies but not get too emotionally attached. The latest newcomer is Treasure, nonverbal at nearly two years old but, more problematically (at least for Jarrett), accompanied by her twelve-year-old brother Kevon. The challenge of adjusting to Kevon’s presence is just one trial too many for Jarrett at the moment. He’s already worrying about failing summer school and repeating sixth grade; listening to Mom and her boyfriend quarrel over her neverending focus on foster kids; figuring out how to approach his crush, Caprice; and balancing competition for Mom’s attention with the knowledge that many of her charges have been abused and need her immediate help more than he does. Booth exercises laudable restraint in discussion of the foster care system, and although she spins Kevon and Treasure’s background into a mystery for Jarrett to puzzle out, it’s sympathy rather than sensationalism that sets the overall tone. Jarrett and Kevon are believable adolescents—defiantly bent on saving face among their peers, unprepared to consider the consequences of their hasty words, and prone to settle differences with fists rather than diplomacy. Their ultimate rapprochement, which caps Jarrett’s narrative, is all the more realistic for its tenuous nature. Kevon and Treasure may stay, or they may go, but while they’re in residence in Mrs. Ashby’s home, they’ll be treated as siblings—with all the affection and scrapping that involves.