Forever, or a Long, Long Time by Caela Carter

Her story is heartbreakingly realistic and hopeful. But in learning about herself, Flora begins to make sense of her life now and what it means to be a family. Sometimes the answers just lead to more questions there’s no saccharine ending here. In an effort to find out more about their past and prove to Flora and Julian that they really were babies, their adoptive mom takes them on a road trip to previous foster homes. The siblings’ memories become even more critical when Flora and Julian discover postcards sent from a former foster placement. Additional layers of this untraditional family are revealed through Julian, with his fake smiles and food hoarding, and their black adoptive father and his daughter from his first marriage. In Forever, or a Long, Long Time, Caela Carter examines the aftermath of foster care and adoption through the lens of Flora, who is repeating the fourth grade, can’t talk when her words get “stuck” and has trouble always believing Person (her secret name for her white adoptive mother) is her forever mom. With no early memories and no record of a birth mother, Flora is certain she never was a baby. The multiracial 11-year-old girl doesn’t remember much before being adopted two years ago, but when her classroom pet mouse has babies, she begins to wonder about her own birth.

Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, Kathryn Erskine’s Mockingbird, and Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish, this powerful novel about love and family will inspire and delight readers of all ages.Maybe Flora and her younger brother, Julian, came from the ocean or the television or even the horizon. So along with their new mother, Flora and Julian begin a journey to go back and discover their past-for only then can they really begin to build their future. Though Flora is trying her best to trust two new people, when she finds out that there will be a new baby, she’s worried that there won’t be enough love for everyone. ISBN 9780062385680 Categories BX, BXOS, extraordinary, Fic20, Fiction, Teenage / Young Adult, Whateversary Author(s) Caela Carter Publisher Harper Pages 320.

And even now that they’ve been adopted, Flora still struggles to believe that they’ve found their forever home. They’ve lived in so many foster homes, they can’t remember where they came from.

A New York Public Library Top Ten Books for Kids pick įrom rising star Caela Carter, author of My Life with the Liars and How to Be a Girl in the World, comes a captivating and heartfelt story about siblings who learn that love can never be divided, only multiplied.įlora and her brother, Julian, don’t believe they were born. Books by Caela Carter 6 Forever, or a Long, Long Time Fifty-Four Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers How to Be a Girl in the World Tumbling Me, Him, Them.

Forever, or a Long, Long Time by Caela Carter