Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young girl helps her big brother deal with heartache. Stephanie notices that her big brother, Cody, is sad. He and his boyfriend, Roberto, have split up, and Cody's heart is broken. Luckily, Stephanie loves fixing broken things, so she sets out to find the pieces of Cody's heart--symbolized by fragments of sea glass--in the places that were special to Roberto and him: the movie theater where they had their first date, their favorite spot at the beach. With a little help from members of her diverse community, Stephanie locates the pieces and picks up bits of wisdom that she repeats to soothe Cody. Young readers may find this a useful introduction to developing healthy ways to cope with the end of a relationship; it might also help them understand what family members are going through. Those children who would be most interested in the story, however, are likely to be aging out of picture books. The character designs are cute, but the images feel repetitive and flat; the tiny pieces of sea glass, for instance, don't stand out on the page. Still, overall, this is a tender and poignant exploration of an experience that almost everyone will encounter at some point in life. Stephanie and Cody are light-skinned; Roberto is brown-skinned. A sweet, solid tool for honing social-emotional learning. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
