Recommended Ages: Gr. 4-7

Plot Summary: Maya is cold and she's dreading taking two buses by herself for the first time to school in the chilly weather. To make it worse, it's supposed to rain later and her one set of clothes is getting too small. Even worse, her whole family has big, stressful things happening. Her mom has a job interview and they really, really, really need her to get the job. After the interview, Mama and Gabby are going to the hospital to see if Maya's dad can breath on his own yet, although they still don't know if he has any brain function after being hit by a car while riding his bike. To top it off, Maya, Mama, and Gabby have been living in one room in a homeless shelter. It's stressful already, but Maya is doing a wonderful job keeping herself strong. If she can manage all this, surely she can manage the mean girl at her school and finally tell her best friend about living in a homeless shelter, right?

Setting: San Francisco, specific neighborhoods named

Characters:
Maya - extremely generous and shares her very few belongings with others
Abby - Maya's best friend
Mama - was an art teacher, calls her "my Maya"
Gabby - 2.5 yo, Maya's sister
Daddy - writer, cares a lot about earth and food quality, ie. organic and fair trade
Ms. Sherman - art teacher
Doc Spalding - science teacher, gender non-conforming, they/them/doc
Sophy, Sadie, Aisha, Ellie - Maya's friends at school
Sloane - mean girl at school, lives in a ginormous mansion and family bought the property behind them so they didn't have to deal with neighbors, have about 5 homes total in various parts of the world

Recurring Themes: homelessness, rich vs poor, haves and have nots, charity, friends, bully, love, family

Controversial Issues: gender non-conforming teacher at school who is only mentioned on 2 pages

Personal Thoughts: Maya is an insanely strong and generous girl who thinks of others despite her major stresses. She is definitely a hero. This book is well written and truly puts you inside the head of someone who is homeless. It takes place over the course of just one day. The authors note explains a bit more about homelessness.

Genre: realistic fiction

Pacing: first few pages a bit slow, but then medium
Characters: very well developed
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