"The Vanderbeekers Lost and Found" by Karina Yan Glaser

This series continues to delight me! I love that the kids age and mature as it progresses -- this fourth book takes place about two years after the first book.  Unfortunately, that means the adults also age, and a loss that has been hovering for a while finally occurs.  Glaser handles grief and mourning so sensitively, yet honestly -- she really, really impressed me here.

This book also involves the issues of homelessness for kids and absent parents, and how those can affect even kids like the Vanderbeekers who have a loving and stable home.  But it also shows how they can impact the life of someone who is struggling, without seeming condescending or pitying.  Again, I was impressed.

No one in this book ever says the phrase "love your neighbor as yourself," but that message is woven all through this book, and the series as a whole.  Wonderful stuff!

Also, yes, I've read a LOT of middle-grade books and manga while laid up with my broken arm.  They have been such mood lifters!!!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for dealing with the heavier topics of death and homelessness and abandonment that might be disturbing to some very young readers.

This has been my 31st book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022