It's not every day that a book touching on foster care, bullying, loss and cancer is as funny and heartwarming as it is gut-punching, but Paul Griffin (Adrift; Burning Blue) pulls it off in his thoroughly engaging middle-grade novel When Friendship Followed Me Home. The author doesn't play fair... there's an irresistible stray pup named Flip, a "freaky little banana" of a dog that wriggles his way into everyone's heart even though "his breath is not particularly fantastic."
Twelve-year-old Ben Coffin, though friendly and "not totally revolting," is not immune to being bullied at his Coney Island school, to the point where he's nervous about even carrying a book around. Ben has been in the foster care system, but finally, just two years ago, he was adopted by a 67-year-old woman named Tess who tells him "We're forever." Based on personal history, Ben is loathe to believe in the idea of "forever," and he's proved right again when he has to start over with Tess's sister Aunt Jeanie and her insecure, abusive boyfriend Leo, who is nowhere near ready to take care of anything, let alone a sensitive boy and his tiny dog.
When the pink-wigged cancer patient "Halley Like the Comet" streaks into Ben's life, colors blazing, he wishes even more that he could believe in "forever." The dynamic duo shares a mutual adoration of Jacqueline Woodson's Feathers (even though he's more of a Star Wars/sci-fi/comics guy) and they start writing a story--their own story--as an allegory called The Magic Box. Heartbreak comes from unexpected places, but so does love in this witty, ultimately hopeful two-hanky novel. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness