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| Image: Scholastic |
Middle Grade Monday features Lila and Hadley by Kody Keplinger. Let me just start by saying that I love this book with all my heart. Our narrator, Hadley, is a prickly girl. She has a lot to be angry about though. She has an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa that is slowly stealing her eyesight. Her single-mom had been pushing Hadley to enroll in mobility classes for that day when her eyesight disappears. Hadley wants no part of it. Now, her mother is being sent to prison and Hadley is being sent to live with her sister, who abruptly left the family five years earlier and whom Hadley barely knows. Now, she's living an entire state away and has to start school after the summer break as "the blind girl."
Hadley's sister, Beth, is a dog trainer. She works with dog rescues to help their dogs become more adoptable. Hadley accompanies her one day even though she "ain't a dog person." She's annoyed by the eager, barking dogs scrambling for attention as she walks by their cages. Then she spies Lila, who lies in the corner of her cage, not paying attention to anyone. To the astonishment of Hadley's sister and the rescue director, Lila shows interest in Hadley. The two sisters take her home to foster even though Hadley "ain't a dog person."
I was instantly captivated by Hadley's voice and my heart ached for her even as I cringed at her rudeness. Beth is a rock. She's patient and accommodating. Her mom is flawed, but trying to do right. The story will cultivate empathy. Readers will learn about the challenges a blind person faces in an organic way.
I love everything about this book from it's striking and perfect cover through to the tearjerker ending. I can't wait to get this book into my students' hands when we get back to school! Lila and Hadley is a first purchase! I cannot recommend this enough.
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