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Far from the Tree Paperback – June 4, 2019
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National Book Award Winner, PEN America Award Winner, and New York Times Bestseller!
Perfect for fans of This Is Us, Robin Benway’s beautiful interweaving story of three very different teenagers connected by blood explores the meaning of family in all its forms—how to find it, how to keep it, and how to love it.
Being the middle child has its ups and downs.
But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—
Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.
And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.
Don't miss this moving novel that addresses such important topics as adoption, teen pregnancy, and foster care.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperTeen
- Publication dateJune 4, 2019
- Grade level8 - 9
- Reading age13 - 17 years
- Dimensions5.31 x 0.9 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100062330632
- ISBN-13978-0062330635
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Editorial Reviews
Review
★ “Family issues are neither airbrushed nor oversimplified. From the first page to the last, this compassionate, funny, moving, compulsively readable novel about what makes a family gets it right.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
★ “Equally heartwarming and heart-wrenching... Benway (Emmy & Oliver) delves into the souls of these characters as they wrestle to overcome feelings of inadequacy, abandonment, and betrayal, gradually coming to understand themselves and each other.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A sensitive exploration of what it means to be a family…With an abundance of warmth and humor, the novel continues to circle back to the message that love doesn’t require perfection — that perhaps it reveals itself most fully when we don’t quite get it right, but keep trying.” — Chicago Tribune
“A brilliant exercise in empathy.” — New York Times Book Review
“Benway adeptly leads readers through a tale of love, loss, and self-discovery. Expect to cry real tears at this one.” — School Library Journal
“Far from the Tree is the kind of book that strikes close to a reader’s heart. I had to know what happened to Grace, Maya, and Joaquin, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Beautiful.” — Ally Condie, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of the Matched trilogy
“Far from the Tree is a touching story about the strength and love of unconventional families, and the unbreakable bond of siblings near and far. Robin Benway’s characters are authentically crafted, full of heart, hurt, and hope.” — Brandy Colbert, author of Pointe and Little & Lion
“A beautifully written story about the families we’re born with and the families we choose, as well as the power — and potential pain — of that choice.” — Bustle
“A deeply moving novel...The trials the three teens face are always confronted directly and never diminished; their relationships, both new and old, are complicated and beautiful.” — Shelf Awareness
“Far from the Tree dives deep into themes of heartbreak and love, and presents a profound, emotional meditation on what it means to be family.” — Brightly
“If you’ve even once wept at NBC’s This Is Us, you particularly owe it to yourself to pick this one up.” — NPR.org
“The book really is something special.” — Wall Street Journal
“Readers will appreciate the explorations of family, stigma, and vulnerability. Benway is looking to follow in the Caroline Cooney footsteps of smart, realism-grounded stories.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
About the Author
Robin Benway is a National Book Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author of nine novels for young people, including Far from the Tree, Audrey, Wait!, the AKA series, and Emmy & Oliver. Her books have received numerous awards and recognition, including the PEN America Literary Award, the Blue Ribbon Award from the Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books, ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults, and ALA’s Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults. In addition, her novels have received starred reviews from BookPage, Kirkus Reviews, ALA Booklist, and Publishers Weekly and have been published in more than twenty-five countries. Her sixth novel, Far from the Tree, won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the PEN America Award and was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, PBS, Entertainment Weekly, and the Boston Globe. In addition to her fictional work, her nonfiction work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Bustle, Elle, and more. Her newest book, The Girls of Skylark Lane, will be in stores in Fall 2024.
Robin grew up in Orange County, California, attended NYU, where she was a recipient of the Seth Barkas Prize for Creative Writing, and is a graduate of UCLA. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Hudson.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperTeen; Reprint edition (June 4, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062330632
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062330635
- Reading age : 13 - 17 years
- Grade level : 8 - 9
- Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.9 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #99,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Robin Benway is a National Book Award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author of six novels for young adults, including Far From the Tree, Audrey, Wait!, the AKA series, and Emmy & Oliver. Her books have received numerous awards and recognition, including the PEN America Literary Award, the Blue Ribbon Award from the Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books, ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults, and ALA’s Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults. In addition, her novels have received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly, and have been published in more than 25 countries. Her most recent book, Far From the Tree, won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the PEN America Award, and was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, PBS, Entertainment Weekly, and the Boston Globe. In addition, her non-fiction work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Bustle, Elle, and more.
Robin grew up in Orange County, California, attended NYU, where she was a recipient of the Seth Barkas Prize for Creative Writing, and is a graduate of UCLA. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Hudson.
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While this book is classified as a YA contemporary, the topics are pretty heavy and deal with things like teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, and depression. I think it’s an important read, but probably better suited to a more mature reader as this isn’t a fluffy YA at all (which, again, is totally my jam but not for everyone). There is some swearing but it was also realistic to older teenagers. Seriously, spend some time on a high school campus and I’m sure you’ll lose count of the various F bombs they drop, and this book is nowhere near that level. Also, in case you are worried about the type of adoption story this is: I can assure you it isn’t one of those that paints adoptive parents as lesser in any way then bio-parents. The message I got was: giving up babies is a trauma, even if it’s done for all the right reasons. It’s hard and heart breaking, but the parents who adopt these kids are wonderful and give their children the world and more in love and support. I think the author handles these topics wonderfully and with great care and respect to both those who adopt, and the bio-parents who choose to give up their children.
That being said, out of the three main characters, I felt the most for Grace. All her chapters kicked me right in the gut. She felt the most tangible and tortured to me, followed closely by Joaquin. Those two had me tearing up multiple times. Which is odd only because Maya’s situation is the closest to my own in terms of a child being adopted into a home when the couple has a biological baby. But I did love Maya’s sarcastic wit and she was often a good foil to the more serious chapters with Joaquin—who struggles with wanting to feel like things are going right for him, but he’s been hurt so much that he can’t trust anyone to get close to him—and Grace—who wrestles with giving up her child and struggling to figure out her new normal while battling her grief and guilt over not being there for her baby in a similar fashion to her bio-mom. Honestly, if it weren’t for the humor introduced by Maya (who is a lesbian with a great girlfriend!) and Grace’s friend Rafe, this book would be a little hard to get through because the topics and feelings Benway evokes are just that powerful. But even if that levity hadn’t been there, I’d still love this book. The stories and characters, and the situations they deal with, are that important.
Honestly there was only one thing I found frustrating about the book, and that was how the characters wouldn’t just talk to each other. Which is a very teenager thing to do so it adds to the realism, but at the same time when you as the reader know they could help each other out so much by just saying the thing they are hiding… yeah, got a little frustrating. Still, I loved these kids. I hurt alongside them, I loved the messages they had for their parents, friends, and each other. They address their issues in a healthy way (for the most part), encouraging therapy and support groups to get the help they each needed. I loved their struggles and wanted them to have a happy ending because they deserved it so, so much. I LOVED this book. Period. I give it all the stars! All of them! Or, you know, just 5 because that’s all Amazon and Goodreads allows… Anyway, READ THIS BOOK!
There are so many words to describe Robin’s brand new novel, which comes out tomorrow, but the first one that comes to mind is beautiful. This book is just beautiful.
First off, let’s talk about family. This book is first and foremost about family, how it can come from many different places. Two girls are adopted and one is in a foster family that loves him. The three of them find each other find each other and become a family. But there’s also the family they go searching for and the friends they surrounded themselves with. Robin writes family so beautiful, especially that bond between siblings, whether its the relationship between the biological siblings of Grace, Maya and Joaquin or the relationship between Maya and her sister, Lauren. I have five younger siblings and we are all incredibly closed and I felt such a connection with the story of family in this novel.
Second, I loved the discovery of self identity, especially for Maya and Joaquin. Maya is lesbian, has a girlfriend, and is sure of herself in that and I love that so much. It’s not a big deal at all and that’s amazing. I love that there’s that diversity in there and its written as if its not a big deal, because, hello, its totally not. But I also love Joaquin wanting to know more about himself, more about where he came from, what his culture is like. He wants to be Mark and Linda’s son but he doesn’t want to lose who he is at heart. I admire that so much.
Third, Grace. Oh, Grace. I bonded with her story more than anything. I know what its like to be pregnant in high school, to feel rejected, to feel unsure of your decision, to feel like you’ve let people down, to feel like you’ve been abandoned. I didn’t have my baby; I unfortunately had a miscarriage. There’s a part early in the book where she is overwhelmed by the loss of her baby; she feels it in her body. It feels empty, like there’s something missing and she physically feels it and I cannot even begin to describe how close I felt to that. That was over a decade ago for me but all those feelings came rushing back at me.
Overall, Robin has written an incredible novel here. I’ve always adored her and I remember reading Emmy and Oliver and thinking it was her best yet but this book blows it out of the water. She gets better and better with each book and this one definitely shows that. The story is great, and the emotions are real, and the fact that it centers on family and does such a great job at it is what makes this book a must read. It comes out tomorrow and I 100% urge everyone to get this book. I’m positive it’s my favorite of the year so far.
I wish the seller mentioned that it’s an ARC and that it had the word marked on the bottom. I won’t return it because I can keep it for my personal library.
I wish the seller mentioned that it’s an ARC and that it had the word marked on the bottom. I won’t return it because I can keep it for my personal library.
Top reviews from other countries
- I loved how the author highlighted all three of them equally with unique story of their own.
✨The elder one, Joaquin who is still under foster care and hasn't been adopted because of his anger issues. He is such a nice boy and I want everything nice happen to him because he deserves all the love in the world.
✨The middle child, Grace is the link who connects all of them together. She is a teenage mom who is trying to accept herself and find peace within. We need more characters like her in books.💖
✨And the younger one, Maya is sarcastic but also has super attitude. She's a girlfriend.
Even though the romance contribution to the story is minimum, I liked the pairs(Maya & Claire, Joaquin & Birdie).
- I loved how their relationship developed over time, how supportive they were of each other and when the book ended, it was so perfect and I was really happy for all three of them.
Far from the tree is an emotional, heart warming story which will leave the readers happy but also makes them cry. I would rate this book with not just 5 stars but with all the stars in the sky if I could. It's become my all time favorite contemporaries. Highly recommend!
The book itself was absolutely amazing, and I recommend to anyone who reads YA.
A história tem ritmo e lhe faz emocionar ao mostrar que não na vida real não há grandes vilões.