The Strongest Heart is my most personal story yet. It’s about a boy whose father has severe paranoid schizophrenia, whose mother has temporarily left the country, and whose life has been uprooted by a move to Houston, Texas. I, too, grew up under the care of a mentally ill father, and a mother who was emotionally, if not physically, absent. It took a deep toll not only on me as a child, but affected the adult I became, and the relationships I formed, including with my own parents and siblings.
We first met Quag in author Mylisa Larson's Playing Through the Turnaround. Quagmire Tiarello Couldn't Be Better is filled with wry humor and sharp insight that captures the distinctive voice of a young teen forced by his mother’s unstable mental health to recalibrate his outlook and build a new life with found family.
We've heard over and over from librarians and educators about how difficult it can be to navigate middle grade and teen books to find the ones with the most appeal for 7th and 8th grade students. We've put our heads together and assembled an amazing list of books that you can feel confident handing your middle school readers!
