Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd) by Julie Bowe (review)

Summer takes a horrible turn for nine-year-old Wren when her dad moves out; unsure of what to say to her friends, Wren opts for radio silence, and by the time school starts again in fall, her angry best friend Amber has fallen in with flashy new girl Marianna. Still hiding the truth, Wren grits her teeth and puts up with bossy and condescending Marianna as the price of admission for maintaining friendship with Amber. As Wren negotiates the strangeness of having parents living in two places, however, she begins to see that she may have more in common with Marianna than she realized. The story is fairly predictable, and Wren’s mother leaves her daughter so unsupported in the face of the separation that it’s hard to see her as the loving if stressed parent she’s framed as being. However, Marianna’s arc is surprisingly rewarding, and the gentle pace and accessible writing make this reachable by readers who are inexperienced emotionally as well as literarily. This could therefore make a solid chapter-by-chapter readaloud with a useful message about friendship, and kids undergoing family upheaval themselves may appreciate Wren’s situation.