Family Game Night and Other Catastrophes by Mary E. Lambert (review)

Seventh-grader Annabelle has good friends, an intact family, a budding romance, and a secret that could destroy it all: her mother is a hoarder. Mom’s “collections” began when Annabelle was six, and Annabelle’s reaction has been to empty her room of all nonessential items and close the door, keeping vigilante watch against her mother’s tendency to sneak things in. When a parental blow-up happens while Annabelle is at a sleepover, she comes home to the possibility that her dad has left for good, and her brusque grandmother is on her way to set things right. Keeping the narrative firmly in Annabelle’s perspective, Lambert doesn’t go into the causes of Annabelle’s mom’s disorder, only their effects and Annabelle’s desire to run from them. She can’t leave behind her sensitive little sister, though, or her grandmother’s suggestion that her rage for minimalism is a reaction to her mother’s need for stuff. The responses of Annabelle’s friends are credible, as the girls can barely restrain their need to talk it out; her crush, Drew, believably sweeps it into the category of “everyone’s family is weird and I still like you.” The relationship among Annabelle and her brother and sister bears mention as well, with Leslie acting as the heart and Annabelle the conscience who finally calls her mother to account and her brother and father home, insisting that they all do the hard work of healing so that they can stay together. Middle-grade readers won’t look at that pile of junk mail, old sheets, and raggedy stuffed animals the same way again.