Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord

Booktalk version: Tess Brooks lives on a small Maine island with her family, including her father, a lobsterman, and her mother, the island schoolteacher, and her little sister Libby. They want to add to their family so they offer a place to a foster child, partly to help increase the number of children on the island and save their little one-room schoolhouse. If the school closes, Tess' family will have to move to the mainland and her life will change from one where she has known everyone, taken part in island rituals such as the Talent Show, and gone with her father to catch lobsters. When Aaron, a thirteen-year-old boy, arrives, he is not the older brother Tess was hoping for. He is moody, resentful of his status as a foster child, and upset about leaving his jazz band. As he finds solace in his love of music by playing his trumpet and piano, most of the islanders accept him and appreciate his talents, but will Aaron ever accept the island and the Brooks family as home?

Full-length version: I seem to have a Maine theme going lately, between the third Penderwicks book, which takes place there, and Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord, the author of Rules, a popular read-aloud at my school. This author uses her books to share insights into characters that don't often get mainstream attention, autistic children, and foster children. In this book, Aaron, a thirteen-year-old foster child, comes to a small Maine island to live with the Brooks family. Tess is eleven years old and has been hoping that Aaron will be the older brother she never had. Libby, her little sister, just wants someone to play with. Their father is a lobsterman and their mother is the schoolteacher on the island, though maybe not for long. The state has said that there aren't enough children on the island to keep the school open, so the islanders hatch a plot to bring foster children to the island to keep their numbers high.

Tess doesn't want to have to move to the mainland, where others know all the rituals of belonging. Ritual and superstition are important to Tess, each chapter revolves around the idea of a superstition or luck-making ritual, and she has her own rituals that bring her comfort and that she feels require her to remain on the island. The thought of losing her known life for an unknown one has her confused and upset. Then the arrival of the moody and uninterested Aaron complicates her life even more. She doesn't like the unknown, and Aaron is a big unknown.

As Tess tries to help Aaron feel more comfortable with his new surroundings, she has to come to terms with some new things herself, as difficult as that is. Change is hard, and everyone in this book is dealing with change on some level.

This book provides some insight into the difficulties and joys of island life, bringing the Maine island and fishing culture to life. The reader will also find some insight into the life of a foster child, their fears and hopes, and the difficulty in finding a place one can call "home."