Far From the Tree

I enjoyed reading this teen novel by Robin Benway. She follows the lives of three siblings, given up by their biological mother and adopted/ fostered into separate families. Grace, the middle sister, becomes pregnant in high school and chooses to give her daughter up to adoptive parents. This is a heart-wrenching decision, and it leads her to search for her bio family. She meets her younger sister, Maya, adopted by well-to-do parents, and Joaquin, whose entire life has been spent in foster families, and his emotional scars are preventing him from joining a family who very much want to adopt him. Ms. Benway has written a very poignant story of three empathetic siblings who begin to bond and learn how to be there for each other. Warning: this is a tearjerker, so be prepared…