Just Under The Clouds

Just Under The Clouds

Juvenile fiction
"For six years since Daddy died, we've been making homes where
we can get them, from place to place. Sometimes we cuddle up on Mom's
artist friends' couches. Once we rode back and forth on the 4 train
all night long, looking at the flourescent lights like they were stars.
Cora, narrator of Melissa Sarno's Just Under The Clouds, is in
middle school. Her mom struggles to support her little family on a
low paying retail job. Little sister Adare is an impulsive child who
thinks and acts differently from her peers, goes to special classes,
and needs close supervision. Cora is in charge when the girls are out
of school and their mother is still at work.
School is a lonely place for Cora. Before she'd made an effort
to talk to classmates. But now she's given up. Why make friends
you'll only lose the next time you get uprooted?
One night Cora and Adare aren't picked up at the park their
mother usually meets them at. They return home to find their room at
a homeless shelter has been broken into and trashed. That night the
family goes to crash at the home of Willa, Cora's mom's childhood
friend.
It's a beautiful apartment. There's always lots of food. Willa
really wants them to stay. Could this be the permanent home Cora's
been yearning for? Or will her mom do something to make yet one more
place temporary?
On a personal note, recall we recently discussed the upcoming 8th
anniversary of this blog? That's not the only special birthday this
year. In September Orono Public Library will have been open at its
current location 10 years. (I've volunteered since they opened the
doors.) It's a beautiful building that serves as home away from home
for a wide array of community members. More recently the haphazard
vegetation behind the library has been replaced with a village green
including a natural ampitheater. Now the summer concerts are held
there the same nights community gardeners harvest and snack. Talk
about a feast for all senses!
A great big shout out goes out to all who helped make the library what
it is today. I can't imagine all we will achieve in the next ten years!
jules hathaway


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