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Lasagna Means I Love You
What are the essential ingredients that make a family? Eleven-year-old Mo is making up her own recipe.
Nan was all the family Mo ever needed. But suddenly she’s gone, and Mo finds herself in foster care after her uncle decides she’s not worth sticking around for. Nan left her a notebook and advised her to get a hobby, like ferret racing or palm reading. But how could a hobby fix anything in her newly topsy-turvy life?
Then Mo finds a handmade cookbook filled with someone else’s family recipes. Even though Nan never cooked, Mo can’t tear her eyes away. Not so much from the recipes, but the stories attached to them. Though, when she makes herself a pot of soup, it is every bit as comforting as the recipe notes said.
Soon Mo finds herself asking everyone she meets for their family recipes. Teaching herself to make them. Collecting the stories behind them. Building a website to share them. And, okay, secretly hoping that a long-lost relative will find her and give her a family recipe all her own.
But when everything starts to unravel again, Mo realizes that if she wants a family recipe—or a real family—she’s going to have to make it up herself.
Nan was all the family Mo ever needed. But suddenly she’s gone, and Mo finds herself in foster care after her uncle decides she’s not worth sticking around for. Nan left her a notebook and advised her to get a hobby, like ferret racing or palm reading. But how could a hobby fix anything in her newly topsy-turvy life?
Then Mo finds a handmade cookbook filled with someone else’s family recipes. Even though Nan never cooked, Mo can’t tear her eyes away. Not so much from the recipes, but the stories attached to them. Though, when she makes herself a pot of soup, it is every bit as comforting as the recipe notes said.
Soon Mo finds herself asking everyone she meets for their family recipes. Teaching herself to make them. Collecting the stories behind them. Building a website to share them. And, okay, secretly hoping that a long-lost relative will find her and give her a family recipe all her own.
But when everything starts to unravel again, Mo realizes that if she wants a family recipe—or a real family—she’s going to have to make it up herself.
368 pages, Library Binding
First published February 21, 2023
79 people are currently reading
2156 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 399 reviews
October 26, 2023
✰ 3.5 stars ✰
“I want someone like you. I want someone like you to want someone like me. Not for charity. Not because taking care of me “is the right thing to do.” But because they love me.”
As someone who loves lasagna, the title Lasagna Means I Love You was calling out to me. Mo, short for Maureen, was an interesting character to have as a narrator - one who's recently been placed in the foster care system. A delightful blend of 'the sour, and the sweet. At the same time. But mostly the sweet.' Mo embarks on this heart-warming journey of collecting family recipes that bring people together, with the hopes that she can find a family that she can call her own along the way. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
“What I do know is that the world isn’t the place you always made me think it was. Filled with sequins and sparkles and love, with an adventure waiting around every corner. It’s something else entirely.”
Stories told in epistolary format are somewhat a hit or a miss for me, but I think in this case it worked well. Having recently lost her grandmother, her love letters to Nan were a cathartic way for Mo to deal with her grief and also still be able to connect with someone who deeply cared for her. To still feel the love and support from her grandmother in the moments in her life that mattered - someone there to listen to her pains and grievances was a lovely touch that gave growth to her character -at times, it really made me emotional that for each moment she felt that she would get close to finding her own family, how even though, a secret hope is growing inside of me, more and more, every day' - it never came to pass. 💔💔
Even though it was hard to see, I think it was a well-intended touch to show that first attempt at foster care isn't always perfect - there are people who will try their best to make a child feel as welcome as possible - give them every comfort capable, but still prioritize their own well-being over theirs. Those instances where Mo would have experience that rude awakening really hurt me. It's a very real and valid look at how sometimes even those who are privileged can still endure so much pain and sadness in the foster care system. And when her own uncle blatantly said to her face 'So, Mo, I’m sorry, but for once in my life, I need to prioritize myself,' - like Mo, 'I felt like I’d been slapped.' My blood was boiling - I was literally speechless. What kind of person would say that directly to an eleven year old's face - to make them feel like they're a foster child to their own living relative? But, even in the darkest of pains, there are still people who can show Mo the light - that there is someone out there. ❤️🩹❤️🩹
“Because food isn’t just food. It’s tradition. Heritage. A way to celebrate your culture and your roots. It’s love.”
I enjoyed how each recipe was introduced into Mo's life; it felt very natural, not at all contrived, and each of them were very tempting - totally worth trying out for yourself. I liked how they would reflect Mo's thoughts at the time - how they helped motivate her to try new things and also propel her own life into different directions. Heartfelt recipes of food for comfort, it was a nice inclusion of traditions world-over that found their way into her life - 'the dishes we served tonight were from families with love in their recipes and their kitchens. So many threads were woven together. There was so much history.' 🥹🥹 It was poignantly expressed - the love and care Mo treated each recipe - as gift that invited her to be a part of stranger's memories - their lives and the joy these foods brought to them - giving her the chance to experience it for herself. I liked how it encouraged her to find her own courage to stay true to her constituents.
As Mo ventures into the world of online blogging, there were plenty of helpful perks that I thought would be very useful for readers. With a lot of careful tact, the author introduced plenty of internet savvy points and resourceful tips that helped encourage readers to find their own hobbies and determine what would bring them happiness into their lives. It may be a tad unbelievable that Mo was able to achieve so much fame and popularity over such a short period of time - even opening up a pop-up restaurant to immediate success, no less! - but the joy in finding something that matters and nurturing it into something that can become a part of you and make you see the better side of life - one that gives you hope - really should be all that matters. 👏🏻👏🏻
“Because I had it all wrong, didn’t I? Family traditions don’t just have to be about what we love from the past. They can be about what we create for the future.”
A sweet and tender story, one that offers a different take to foster care - showing that family can be more than just blood or skin-deep, and with a helpful heaping of tasty treats, this is one read you can savor when you're in the mood for heart-warming feels. 🌟🫶🏻 🫶🏻
“I want someone like you. I want someone like you to want someone like me. Not for charity. Not because taking care of me “is the right thing to do.” But because they love me.”
As someone who loves lasagna, the title Lasagna Means I Love You was calling out to me. Mo, short for Maureen, was an interesting character to have as a narrator - one who's recently been placed in the foster care system. A delightful blend of 'the sour, and the sweet. At the same time. But mostly the sweet.' Mo embarks on this heart-warming journey of collecting family recipes that bring people together, with the hopes that she can find a family that she can call her own along the way. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
“What I do know is that the world isn’t the place you always made me think it was. Filled with sequins and sparkles and love, with an adventure waiting around every corner. It’s something else entirely.”
Stories told in epistolary format are somewhat a hit or a miss for me, but I think in this case it worked well. Having recently lost her grandmother, her love letters to Nan were a cathartic way for Mo to deal with her grief and also still be able to connect with someone who deeply cared for her. To still feel the love and support from her grandmother in the moments in her life that mattered - someone there to listen to her pains and grievances was a lovely touch that gave growth to her character -at times, it really made me emotional that for each moment she felt that she would get close to finding her own family, how even though, a secret hope is growing inside of me, more and more, every day' - it never came to pass. 💔💔
Even though it was hard to see, I think it was a well-intended touch to show that first attempt at foster care isn't always perfect - there are people who will try their best to make a child feel as welcome as possible - give them every comfort capable, but still prioritize their own well-being over theirs. Those instances where Mo would have experience that rude awakening really hurt me. It's a very real and valid look at how sometimes even those who are privileged can still endure so much pain and sadness in the foster care system. And when her own uncle blatantly said to her face 'So, Mo, I’m sorry, but for once in my life, I need to prioritize myself,' - like Mo, 'I felt like I’d been slapped.' My blood was boiling - I was literally speechless. What kind of person would say that directly to an eleven year old's face - to make them feel like they're a foster child to their own living relative? But, even in the darkest of pains, there are still people who can show Mo the light - that there is someone out there. ❤️🩹❤️🩹
“Because food isn’t just food. It’s tradition. Heritage. A way to celebrate your culture and your roots. It’s love.”
I enjoyed how each recipe was introduced into Mo's life; it felt very natural, not at all contrived, and each of them were very tempting - totally worth trying out for yourself. I liked how they would reflect Mo's thoughts at the time - how they helped motivate her to try new things and also propel her own life into different directions. Heartfelt recipes of food for comfort, it was a nice inclusion of traditions world-over that found their way into her life - 'the dishes we served tonight were from families with love in their recipes and their kitchens. So many threads were woven together. There was so much history.' 🥹🥹 It was poignantly expressed - the love and care Mo treated each recipe - as gift that invited her to be a part of stranger's memories - their lives and the joy these foods brought to them - giving her the chance to experience it for herself. I liked how it encouraged her to find her own courage to stay true to her constituents.
As Mo ventures into the world of online blogging, there were plenty of helpful perks that I thought would be very useful for readers. With a lot of careful tact, the author introduced plenty of internet savvy points and resourceful tips that helped encourage readers to find their own hobbies and determine what would bring them happiness into their lives. It may be a tad unbelievable that Mo was able to achieve so much fame and popularity over such a short period of time - even opening up a pop-up restaurant to immediate success, no less! - but the joy in finding something that matters and nurturing it into something that can become a part of you and make you see the better side of life - one that gives you hope - really should be all that matters. 👏🏻👏🏻
“Because I had it all wrong, didn’t I? Family traditions don’t just have to be about what we love from the past. They can be about what we create for the future.”
A sweet and tender story, one that offers a different take to foster care - showing that family can be more than just blood or skin-deep, and with a helpful heaping of tasty treats, this is one read you can savor when you're in the mood for heart-warming feels. 🌟🫶🏻 🫶🏻
February 15, 2023
Lasagna Means I Love You is an achingly tender portrait of a girl searching -- through food and recipes -- for a family to belong to. Readers are in for a treat with this one. Prepare to have your heart warmed and squeezed by Mo and her crew, experience New York City in all its vibrancy, and learn why and how lasagna can mean I love you.
Full review: https://readingmiddlegrade.com/lasagn...
Full review: https://readingmiddlegrade.com/lasagn...
April 8, 2023
My 2023 heartprint book (so far!)
Told through journal entries, eleven year old Mo had just lost her Nan. The only other family Mo has left is her uncle, who has decided he’s not ready for the commitment of raising a kid. Finding herself in foster care, Mo discovers a cookbook full of family recipes. Not only does Mo fall in loving with cooking, she loses herself in the family stories that are attached to them.
Mo begins to ask everyone she meets for their family recipes, teaching herself to make them. Falling in love with the stories behind them. Even building a website to share them, while secretly hoping that a long-lost relative will contact her and share a family recipe (and maybe a forever home.)
Absolutely loved this middle grade novel full of recipes, food, and family, and ordered a copy for my 4/5th grade classroom library.
Favorite line: p 344
“What I want you to see is that some relationships are bridges, Mo. They aren’t meant to last forever. They take you where you’re meant to be.”
Told through journal entries, eleven year old Mo had just lost her Nan. The only other family Mo has left is her uncle, who has decided he’s not ready for the commitment of raising a kid. Finding herself in foster care, Mo discovers a cookbook full of family recipes. Not only does Mo fall in loving with cooking, she loses herself in the family stories that are attached to them.
Mo begins to ask everyone she meets for their family recipes, teaching herself to make them. Falling in love with the stories behind them. Even building a website to share them, while secretly hoping that a long-lost relative will contact her and share a family recipe (and maybe a forever home.)
Absolutely loved this middle grade novel full of recipes, food, and family, and ordered a copy for my 4/5th grade classroom library.
Favorite line: p 344
“What I want you to see is that some relationships are bridges, Mo. They aren’t meant to last forever. They take you where you’re meant to be.”
August 16, 2024
Food and family, two great things that go together in this story about Mo who is part of the New York City foster system after her grandmother passed away. She takes up cooking as a hobby in hopes of finding family members that might have recipes/stories/traditions to discover.
Give this one to future young foodies and anyone who like's family stories with happy endings.
Give this one to future young foodies and anyone who like's family stories with happy endings.
March 25, 2025
4.5 Stars. Really sweet and delightful book. I loved Mo, and of course Joe and Carlotta.
October 18, 2023
This book left me so frustrated. I love middle grade fiction. This one had the opportunity to be so much better than it was. A sweet story about an 11 year old in foster care who is collecting family recipes while discovering what family really means. Sounds great. Should have been great. I'm so thankful I didn't try to read this one with my kids. It brought up so many unnecessary topics and did it in a terribly preachy way: white privilege (with no story telling of this, just the characters stating it was there multiple times); same sex relationships (including among 11 year olds); evil Republican grandmother. Not to mention the unbelievable nature of the pop-up restaurant planned and executed mostly by 11 year olds. I have 9 and 12 year old. This book did not feel true to their age. It could have been great.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2024
A very touching story of Belonging centered around a school-aged girl in NYC's foster care system. The explorations of families of origin and families of choice is well done and managed obliquely, keeping misplaced exposition to a minimum. I confess to having cried a few times nearer the end. Do keep in mind I'm a softy so YMMV.
My one nagging reservation is that, while the tone of this epistolary novel is appropriate to the first-person tween narrator (Maureen "Mo" Gallagher), the excellent writing is very much that of a talented adult (Kate O'Shaughnessy).
3.5 stars rounded up
My one nagging reservation is that, while the tone of this epistolary novel is appropriate to the first-person tween narrator (Maureen "Mo" Gallagher), the excellent writing is very much that of a talented adult (Kate O'Shaughnessy).
3.5 stars rounded up
January 9, 2023
LASGNA MEANS I LOVE YOU is a poignant and tender story that will stay with you. Mo is everything you want a friend to be–brave, curious, kind, and loyal. Her search for family and belonging is universal. Buy this for yourself and a few more copies for your friends!!
April 6, 2024
I had some big feelings during this read. This had everything, and I loved it.
March 13, 2024
What a sweet and tender story of love and food and finding family. Also heartbreaking moments - and I didn’t want it to end.
April 26, 2023
Poor old Mo is going through it. Her grandma has died and her uncle and only living relative has turned her over to the State of NY for care. She (at 11 years old) starts to wet the bed. Through letters to her dead grandma we learn of her time in her first foster home where she begins cooking, and then to her second pre-adoption home to a rich couple. Nothing works out exactly, but the nods here and there to the difficulty of her situation don't really ring true. It all ties up too neatly and succinctly for me to have enjoyed. I think the length of the book along with the number of issues Mo is dealing with makes it a bit much for elementary school. Hard to picture a kid I'd recommend it to lower than 6th grade.
December 25, 2023
This is the sweetest book i’ve ever read. I think i cried like 12 times.
March 4, 2024
Middlegrade March - This book healed parts of me that have been hurting for years after my Mammy’s passing. I got to comfort the young girl inside of me, remember cooking with my Mammy. I will never, ever forget this book.
MO’s grandmother dies and she is unexpectedly put into foster care. Her grandmother inspired her to start a hobby when she died and Mo stumbles into cooking. That’s all you need to know.
MO’s grandmother dies and she is unexpectedly put into foster care. Her grandmother inspired her to start a hobby when she died and Mo stumbles into cooking. That’s all you need to know.
July 8, 2025
This was an endearing story about a young girl in foster care who longs for a “family recipe" of her own. I’d have rated it five stars because it was such a sweet story and Mo is so likable. But some of the themes were forced and inappropriate for the target audience. For much of the book, I thought maybe I could pass it to my son to read, but then…well, no, not at his age. So five stars for the story—but rounded down to three because the author knew what she was doing and it wasn’t appropriate for middle grade.
March 8, 2025
I love this middle grade book about found family, food, and grief. Finished it in one day!
November 25, 2024
Oh my God! Such a Cute story!
Oh Mo, I love you so very much ❤️
With Mo I cried and laughed, I kept smiling throughout the book.. ❤️❤️❤️
Oh Mo, I love you so very much ❤️
With Mo I cried and laughed, I kept smiling throughout the book.. ❤️❤️❤️
December 17, 2024
Fan-damn-tastic. It's a middle grade read, but it's also an everybody read. Beware though; you'll cry.
January 25, 2024
I love this book so much! It’s great for people who feel like they don’t belong. It made me cry many times. Sometimes in a sad way, but mostly a really happy way. I hope you take the opportunity to read this thrilling book.
June 7, 2023
A book that has you cheering at the end! Give this book to any kid (or grownup, really) you know who likes to cook and treasures family recipes! Heart bursting!
February 17, 2024
This book. 😩 so wonderful.
February 28, 2024
Oh my heart. This one got me.
October 9, 2024
It’s like “Everything on a Waffle” by Polly Horvath but so much better.
February 27, 2023
This is a very sweet and heartfelt story. It is full of family recipes and comes with a great message about life and happiness. This was my 2nd book by this author and even though it was a children’s book I got so much out of it as an adult and was entertained the entire time . Looking forward to more by this author .
January 2, 2023
E ARC provided by Netgalley.com
When Mo's grandmother, Nan, passes away, there is no one to take care of her. Her father was never in the picture, her mother passed away when she was younger, and her Uncle Billy is in the military and is not willing to give up his career and livelihood to care for her. She thinks briefly about asking her best friend Crystal's family to take her in, but knows this is unlikely. She ends up in the foster care system with a good case manager, Moira, and a seemingly wonderful foster family. June and Tate are young professionals who live in a fancy apartment building with a doorman, Joe. They want the best for Mo but don't understand everything about her, including her desire to travel an hour away to keep attending her old school. They do try, and arrange for a car to take her every day. They also support her efforts to cook; since Nan and Uncle Billy were not great in the kitchen, Mo longs for a family recipe of her own. She starts a web site, and asks strangers for family recipes. She gets a few e mails from her postings, and has a lot of fun making the recipes that are sent to her. Crystal helps her with the photography, and Crystal's grandmother helps Mo make dumplings. What Mo wants most is a family recipe, and a family connection, of her own. When a reporter for the New York Times features Mo in an article, she thinks that she has found a family member, but it turns out not to be. She still hopes that more news coverage will help her find a relative, but has to do something newsworthy in order for the reporter to cover her again. She still misses her gran (the entire book is written as journal entries/letters to her grandmother), and gets along with Tate and June. It's not perfect, but June was also in foster care and is understanding when Mo has moments of sadness and acts out. She even convinces Mo to see Dr. Barb for therapy, even though Nan was against it. She connects more with Joe and his wife Carlotta, who watch her one weekend, and they are instrumental in helping her set up a pop up restaurant of family recipes so that the reporter writes another story. When Tate and June have complications arise, it looks like a distant cousin of her grandmother's is willing to be her guardian, and Mo resigns herself to moving away from New York in order to be with her, even though they don't really connect. Will her pop up restaurant help her find a way to stay in the city she loves?
Strengths: There are a fair number of students in foster care at my school, and I assume it's the same in many other places. It's a fine line to show the problems and the positive aspects of this experience in a realistic way. Having never personally experienced any aspect of foster care, it's interesting to read about. It's good that Mo has an interest, and that her friends and foster parents help her pursue it. The look into the privileged life in New York City that June and Tate provide was rather fascinating. Mo's desire to connect with family members, or to find family recipes, will appeal to readers who like to cook, and social media is fascinating to middle grade readers. There are ups and downs, and Mo has some troubles weathering them, but she has a supportive team.
Weaknesses: I personally cringe when characters in books find instant online followings or get interviewed by the New York Times. I've been blogging for seventeen years and still have very few followers. (Many thanks to all two dozen of you!) I also could see the resolution of Mo's problems coming a mile away. To be very clear: middle grade readers will not mind either of these things, and I did enjoy reading the book.
What I really think: This felt a lot like McClain's 2011 Sizzle and a little like Mackler's Not if I Can Help It, due to the New York Setting, and offers a realistic yet upbeat look at foster care along the lines of Farr's Pavi Sharma's Guide to Going Home or Bauer's Raising Lumie. Check your collection; if you still hae a copy of Byar's The Pinballs, weed that and get some of these newer titles! The cover on this one is particularly good and begs to be displayed with Nails' One Hundred Spaghetti Strings!
When Mo's grandmother, Nan, passes away, there is no one to take care of her. Her father was never in the picture, her mother passed away when she was younger, and her Uncle Billy is in the military and is not willing to give up his career and livelihood to care for her. She thinks briefly about asking her best friend Crystal's family to take her in, but knows this is unlikely. She ends up in the foster care system with a good case manager, Moira, and a seemingly wonderful foster family. June and Tate are young professionals who live in a fancy apartment building with a doorman, Joe. They want the best for Mo but don't understand everything about her, including her desire to travel an hour away to keep attending her old school. They do try, and arrange for a car to take her every day. They also support her efforts to cook; since Nan and Uncle Billy were not great in the kitchen, Mo longs for a family recipe of her own. She starts a web site, and asks strangers for family recipes. She gets a few e mails from her postings, and has a lot of fun making the recipes that are sent to her. Crystal helps her with the photography, and Crystal's grandmother helps Mo make dumplings. What Mo wants most is a family recipe, and a family connection, of her own. When a reporter for the New York Times features Mo in an article, she thinks that she has found a family member, but it turns out not to be. She still hopes that more news coverage will help her find a relative, but has to do something newsworthy in order for the reporter to cover her again. She still misses her gran (the entire book is written as journal entries/letters to her grandmother), and gets along with Tate and June. It's not perfect, but June was also in foster care and is understanding when Mo has moments of sadness and acts out. She even convinces Mo to see Dr. Barb for therapy, even though Nan was against it. She connects more with Joe and his wife Carlotta, who watch her one weekend, and they are instrumental in helping her set up a pop up restaurant of family recipes so that the reporter writes another story. When Tate and June have complications arise, it looks like a distant cousin of her grandmother's is willing to be her guardian, and Mo resigns herself to moving away from New York in order to be with her, even though they don't really connect. Will her pop up restaurant help her find a way to stay in the city she loves?
Strengths: There are a fair number of students in foster care at my school, and I assume it's the same in many other places. It's a fine line to show the problems and the positive aspects of this experience in a realistic way. Having never personally experienced any aspect of foster care, it's interesting to read about. It's good that Mo has an interest, and that her friends and foster parents help her pursue it. The look into the privileged life in New York City that June and Tate provide was rather fascinating. Mo's desire to connect with family members, or to find family recipes, will appeal to readers who like to cook, and social media is fascinating to middle grade readers. There are ups and downs, and Mo has some troubles weathering them, but she has a supportive team.
Weaknesses: I personally cringe when characters in books find instant online followings or get interviewed by the New York Times. I've been blogging for seventeen years and still have very few followers. (Many thanks to all two dozen of you!) I also could see the resolution of Mo's problems coming a mile away. To be very clear: middle grade readers will not mind either of these things, and I did enjoy reading the book.
What I really think: This felt a lot like McClain's 2011 Sizzle and a little like Mackler's Not if I Can Help It, due to the New York Setting, and offers a realistic yet upbeat look at foster care along the lines of Farr's Pavi Sharma's Guide to Going Home or Bauer's Raising Lumie. Check your collection; if you still hae a copy of Byar's The Pinballs, weed that and get some of these newer titles! The cover on this one is particularly good and begs to be displayed with Nails' One Hundred Spaghetti Strings!
notes-on-unfinished-books
July 31, 2023I read about 20 pages.
I appreciate that this is a different angle on the foster kid genre, and I was interested in seeing it play out. Most books about foster children start with them in foster care and dealing with trauma, but this one starts out at the beginning of the process, which I found really interesting and compelling. I also appreciate that the adults were not all angels or villains- just flawed people doing their best.
This is not my favorite kid's book of 2023, but it's one I wouldn't mind coming back to some time.
I appreciate that this is a different angle on the foster kid genre, and I was interested in seeing it play out. Most books about foster children start with them in foster care and dealing with trauma, but this one starts out at the beginning of the process, which I found really interesting and compelling. I also appreciate that the adults were not all angels or villains- just flawed people doing their best.
This is not my favorite kid's book of 2023, but it's one I wouldn't mind coming back to some time.
February 22, 2024
The absolute most PRECIOUS book. Foster care, family, food…it’s perfection.
Read
June 5, 2023So sweet ❤️
October 4, 2023
I learned of this book via this post: http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/2023/...
The Story
In this sweet middle grades novel, Maureen "Mo" lives happily with her grandmother. But, then her grandmother dies. Mo processes the death, the rejection by her uncle, and her life as a foster child by writing letters to her late grandmother. Along the way she discovers cooking helps. Her grandmother did not cook, but she picks it up. While living in a foster home she starts a blog to share her cooking all the while hoping a relative will pop up with a family recipe and maybe, just maybe, a home. Eventually she even does a "Pop-up" restaurant show casing the recipes readers have sent in. And, in case you are worried--this is a happy book [No Spoilers!].
My Thoughts
I loved this story. Yes there were times when the author tried too hard to sound like a kid. That was ok. A foster kid go the love she deserved. Yes there were over-the-top- politically correct moments. It's ok. The true story shone through those moments.
The Story
In this sweet middle grades novel, Maureen "Mo" lives happily with her grandmother. But, then her grandmother dies. Mo processes the death, the rejection by her uncle, and her life as a foster child by writing letters to her late grandmother. Along the way she discovers cooking helps. Her grandmother did not cook, but she picks it up. While living in a foster home she starts a blog to share her cooking all the while hoping a relative will pop up with a family recipe and maybe, just maybe, a home. Eventually she even does a "Pop-up" restaurant show casing the recipes readers have sent in. And, in case you are worried--this is a happy book [No Spoilers!].
My Thoughts
I loved this story. Yes there were times when the author tried too hard to sound like a kid. That was ok. A foster kid go the love she deserved. Yes there were over-the-top- politically correct moments. It's ok. The true story shone through those moments.
May 12, 2023
I LOVED this book. I haven’t connected with a book in a long time the way I did with this one. While this book is written for 4-6th graders it is one of the best books I’ve read so don’t discount it just as a “kids book”. I wanted to wrap my arms around the main character Mo and tell her I would be her family. I just loved this character. She writes letters to her recently deceased Grandma as a way to keep their connection alive and that is how Mo’s story is told, all through her letters. While trying to find a hobby she discovers food is more than just something to nourish your body but it can nourish your soul and connect you to your friends and family and your history. So the girl who has no family goes looking for those recipes that connect other families all the while hoping she might find a recipe of her own someday. You will root for Mo, be happy for her, cry for her, laugh with her, and ultimately be glad you met her. Go read this book!
July 22, 2023
This was the sweetest, most heart squeezing book! I loved it to pieces, especially on audio. I have always had a soft spot for New York City books and this was definitely one of those.
Mo is a rising 6th grader who must go into foster care after her beloved grandma dies and there is no family member who can take care of her. She ends up, with a wealthy couple on the lower east side, but the complicated reality of foster care continues…
I loved Mo’s hopeful voice and the way she realistically struggles with her anger and sadness. I also loved the complicated, flawed presentation of adult characters who are not necessarily redeemed or explained. It was brave and rang true for me, even if Mo’s story is probably more positive than many other foster kids’ experiences.
A really great book that will appeal to both kids and adults alike.
Mo is a rising 6th grader who must go into foster care after her beloved grandma dies and there is no family member who can take care of her. She ends up, with a wealthy couple on the lower east side, but the complicated reality of foster care continues…
I loved Mo’s hopeful voice and the way she realistically struggles with her anger and sadness. I also loved the complicated, flawed presentation of adult characters who are not necessarily redeemed or explained. It was brave and rang true for me, even if Mo’s story is probably more positive than many other foster kids’ experiences.
A really great book that will appeal to both kids and adults alike.
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