So, twelve year old Ivy Aberdeen likes to sneak up to her attic and draw pictures of girls (no, not that sort of picture, pervert. This is a middle grade book) The girls are always in a treehouse, holding hands. She's never shown anyone these pictures before because she's trying to figure out what it means for herself. (Spoiler Alert: Ivy is gay).
One night when she's up in her attic, a tornado hits her house and destroys her home. And her drawing book goes missing.
That's about as much as I can tell without giving the story away, but suffice to say the plot is the most beautiful, winding story of how her family puts their lives back together after the disaster and how Ivy tries to figure herself out.
The characters are so beautifully rendered and they leap off the page. The ending had me in bits, but I could see why the author decided to go down that path.
(I realise I keep using the word beautiful, but it really was).
I don't read MG, like at all, but this is definitely a contender for Book Of The Year.
5 stars