I highly recommend “Books in the Home: The Penderwicks on Hayward Street,” Rachel Stein‘s essay on how Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwick series comforted her daughter during a challenging time in her young life. I tend to be skittish about offering specific books as therapy as everyone processes tragedy so differently, but have often seen how individual children hone in on a particular title, as Rachel’s daughter did, and found it comforting. A lovely exploration of books as solace.
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educating alice 
Thank you for the endorsement! I was honored to have my essay paired with Jeanne Birdsall’s own appreciation of middle grade fiction. I’m 100% with both of you on maintaining the middle grade / YA boundary.
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Thanks for the reminder about this essay. I meant to read it last week, but life intervened and I lost track of it. It’s beautiful. (Adding unread Penderwick title to my TBR list!)
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