Breaking into Sunlight

Starred review from May 1, 2024

Gr 5-8-Cochran's debut delivers a poignant, relatable read. Seventh grader Reese has become an expert at concealing his father's pain medication addiction and the problems it's causing between his parents. Even his best friends have no idea the secrets Reese is hiding. As Reese's world comes crashing down, his strength and tenacity are tested. To get some distance from the situation, his mother decides to take Reese with her (against his wishes), to live in a trailer on a rural property belonging to a friend. It is here that Reese begins to grapple with the feelings he's been bottling up. He finds an unlikely friendship in two kids: Charlie, who has Down syndrome, and Charlie's older sister, Meg, orphans who live with their grandparents. Together, they explore nature and find solace in swimming and canoeing in the river that joins the property. Themes include honesty, friendship, trust, and forgiveness. All characters read as white. VERDICT An important novel for every library to have. Readers will find they're not alone in dealing with a loved one's addiction, as an estimated one in eight children have a parent dealing with substance abuse.-Tracy Cronce

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2024
As seventh grade winds down in North Carolina, Reese Buck is eager to spend the summer drawing and playing basketball. A week before school ends, however, he finds his father unresponsive from an opioid overdose. This wasn't the first incident, and it drives Reese's mother to move the two of them into a trailer on the property of her church friends, the Smiths. Reese struggles with leaving his father, fearing for his safety, and he hides the truth from close friends Tony and Ryan out of shame. As Reese gradually lets go of his anger, he embraces life on the Smith family farm. He befriends the Smiths' grandchildren, Meg and Charlie (who has Down syndrome), and the kids enjoy canoeing, swimming, and caring for Charlie's cats. Reese builds a new, stable life but feels guilty about enjoying himself in his father's absence. Although his parents start repairing their relationship, an incident on Reese's 13th birthday disrupts everything, leading Reese to begin questioning whether his father will ever be well or if he even wants to be. Debut author Cochran delivers a sensitive narrative that captures the complex guilt of self-care among those with addicted loved ones. Meg and Charlie are original characters whose emotional backstories enhance the story; the subplot involving Tony and Ryan could have been developed further but instead feels forgotten. Most characters are cued white A simple and powerful tale about the impact of parental addiction. (author's note, resources) (Fiction. 10-14)

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September 1, 2024
Seventh grader Reese Buck has never told his best friends, Tony and Ryan, about his father's drug addiction problems; he doesn't want to be ostracized or seen as "that kid everyone felt sorry for." When Reese finds his father unconscious on the bathroom floor after a near-fatal overdose, his mother has finally had enough. She takes Reese to live, reluctantly, in a trailer on the farm of "the church lady," Mrs. Smith, and her grandchildren: thirteen-year-old Meg and fifteen-year-old Charlie, who has Down syndrome. Cochran ably constructs a sensitive portrayal of a self-involved, if well-meaning, adolescent who thinks he knows what's right and his tentative steps toward letting other people in. The healing power of community is at work here, as Meg and Charlie help in their own ways, and Tony and Ryan, absent for much of the story, appear for a grand time in the country, with friends old and new. An extensive author's note details the massive scale of the substance use and addiction crisis in the United States, where one child in eight under the age of eighteen lives with at least one parent dealing with a drug or alcohol problem. Dean Schneider

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
Seventh grader Reese Buck has never told his best friends, Tony and Ryan, about his father's drug addiction problems; he doesn't want to be ostracized or seen as "that kid everyone felt sorry for." When Reese finds his father unconscious on the bathroom floor after a near-fatal overdose, his mother has finally had enough. She takes Reese to live, reluctantly, in a trailer on the farm of "the church lady," Mrs. Smith, and her grandchildren: thirteen-year-old Meg and fifteen-year-old Charlie, who has Down syndrome. Cochran ably constructs a sensitive portrayal of a self-involved, if well-meaning, adolescent who thinks he knows what's right and his tentative steps toward letting other people in. The healing power of community is at work here, as Meg and Charlie help in their own ways, and Tony and Ryan, absent for much of the story, appear for a grand time in the country, with friends old and new. An extensive author's note details the massive scale of the substance use and addiction crisis in the United States, where one child in eight under the age of eighteen lives with at least one parent dealing with a drug or alcohol problem.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)