Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read an arc version of this book!

Wow, this was a sweet book. Lulu is a powerful main character--she has the best of intentions and desires for her sister and father, but she is also young and just trying to be happy, so some of her actions can appear selfish or unthoughtful. As a teacher, I was thinking of this book through the lens of, “Would I teach this?”, “What would students stand to gain?”. This is a solid empathy-building book centered on a family experiencing housing insecurity/homelessness, best suited for middle grade students. Lulu experiences ups and downs, and finds hope in other people through their kind and generous actions. Carry Me Home feels heavy at times, but there are moments of light to keep the reader engaged. Highly recommend this book--still reflecting on whether it is appropriate for my own classroom!
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I wanted to like this book more than I did. On the whole, it's well written and a credible story, with engaging characters going through a very hard time. Unfortunately, for me it felt more like a love letter from the author to the homeless children she'd love to help, rather than a realistic story. The main things that bothered me were that Lulu has this elevated understanding of anger and sorrow and even as a child is able to see around it. The other is that Lulu and her family are in every way depicted as the deserving poor -- someone who's in a bad place through no fault of their own save grief, and that her community treats her accordingly. They step up with help and advocacy and legal advice and a place to live. They do all the things that Americans on a good day will do. Maybe it's a function of the small-town Montana setting, but it's a far cry away from urban Seattle, or from the experience of Brown protagonists in similar books. It's an ideal world. That's lovely, for those who can afford it, but I really can't see handing this book to a child who's experienced homelessness. This probably isn't a fair review, but it's what I felt reading the book. ( )