Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2020
336 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
For readers of Robin Benway's Far from the Tree, a powerful and heartwarming look at a teen girl about to age out of the foster care system.
Growing up in foster care, Muir has lived in many houses. And if she's learned one thing, it is to Pack. Light. Carry only what fits in a suitcase.
Toothbrush? Yes.
Socks? Yes.
Emotional attachment to friends? foster families? a boyfriend? Nope!
There's no room for any additional baggage.
Muir has just one year left before she ages out of the system. One year before she's free. One year to avoid anything--or anyone--that could get in her way.
Then she meets Francine. And Kira. And Sean.
And everything changes.
"The power of relationship—both those experienced and those denied—is expertly explored throughout this novel with nuance and humanity...An exceptional addition to the coming-of-age canon." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Longo, a foster and adoptive parent, wrote the book for her adopted daughter, who wanted a "hopeful, happy" tale; she provides it—and the book, well-written and heartfelt, is a pleasure." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A deeply touching story about survival, hope, and love and an important addition to the literature of foster care. Muiriel's journey will transfix readers from the first to the last page." - Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces
"What I Carry is not only a necessary book—it's a charming, honest, and hopeful one. This is a story you'll fall for." - Deb Caletti, National Book Award Finalist, and author of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book, A Heart in a Body in the World
"You will carry this book in your heart for a long, long time." - Jeff Zentner, William C. Morris Award winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days
"Funny, painful, fresh, and real, Jennifer Longo's What I Carry will break your heart and put it back together again." - Martha Brokenbrough, author of Kirkus Prize Finalist The Game of Love and Death
This information about What I Carry was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jennifer Longo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Acting from San Francisco State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing For Theatre from Humboldt State University. She is a two-time Irene Ryan Best Actor Award recipient and a Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Best Full Length Script honoree for her play, Frozen. After years of acting, playwriting, working as a literary assistant at San Francisco's Magic Theatre and an elementary school librarian, Jennifer told the occasional story at San Francisco's Porch Light Storytelling Series and decided at last to face her fear of prose and actually write some. Her debut novel, Six Feet Over It (Random House Books 2014) received starred reviews from Kirkus and The Bulletin, was selected as a 2015 Washington State Book ...
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