Hurricane Season

Gr 5-7-Eleven-year-old Fig craves normalcy. But with a hurricane approaching, both literally and figuratively, Fig will have to navigate her way to calmer waters. She lives with her father, a once-renowned pianist, who now suffers from dramatic mood swings that make it impossible for him to work or for his daughter to connect with him. Although she is more comfortable in the science arena, Fig enrolls in an art class hoping it will shed some light on the way her brilliant but troubled father's mind works. Through the class, Fig meets three people who guide her to a deeper understanding of herself: a supportive art teacher, a boy who genuinely wants to be Fig's friend, and Hannah, a high school student on whom Fig develops a crush. It is Fig's introduction to the works of Vincent van Gogh, though, that inspires her to learn more about mental illness. She and her father also have the support of their new neighbor, Mark, who becomes a steady and calming presence in both of their lives. As a hurricane approaches their New Jersey beach community, Fig begins to rely on the support of friends-and her own newfound strength-to bring music back into their lives. VERDICT Fig's story will engage middle grade readers who enjoy thoughtful novels that address complex topics. It may even inspire them to seek out the works of van Gogh.-Shelley Sommer, Inly School, Scituate, MA

March 1, 2019
A father and daughter learn to take care of each other.It's always just been Fig and her dad. He's a little difficult sometimes, but that doesn't mean her art teacher, Miss Williams, needed to call social services on him. Now she has three months to get him on track before the social workers come back to check on them. They love each other, but they don't totally understand each other--Fig's dad is a formerly successful pianist and composer with unmanaged bipolar disorder--so Fig has decided to do a project on Vincent van Gogh for art class. Maybe if she studies an artist, she can understand her father's mind. But before long it's their new neighbor, Mark, who understands her father, and Fig feels left on her own. She must figure out what to do before social services returns; how to manage her male best friend's crush on her and her crush on someone else--a girl; and how to react when her father and Mark fall in love. The parallels drawn between van Gogh and his brother and Fig and her father are meaningful and come from Fig, so they don't feel contrived. Melleby doesn't shy away from how terrifying it is to watch someone in a dangerously manic state, but the narrative never tips into melodrama.A thoughtful portrayal of mental illness with queer content that avoids coming-out clichés. (Fiction. 9-12)

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Starred review from March 25, 2019
In coastal New Jersey, 11-year-old Fig and her father have been on their own since her mother abandoned them following Fig’s birth. Fig’s father, a once-successful pianist and composer with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, has good days and bad; when he interrupts the girl’s class with a desperate plea to see her, her teacher grows concerned and calls child services. Afraid of being taken from her father and intensely private about his struggles, Fig must enlist the help of their new neighbor Mark when her dad wanders off in the middle of a hurricane—not for the first time. Hoping to better understand her father, STEM-inclined Fig starts a project about Vincent van Gogh and becomes drawn to similarities between her family and his. Mark’s steadfast presence and growing relationship with her dad first infuriates Fig, then allows her to relinquish her fierce protection of her father; as hurricane season advances, she becomes less anxious and more comfortable in her life. Melleby’s debut offers a tender, earnest portrait of a daughter searching for constancy while negotiating her father’s sickness and the social challenges of tween girlhood, including her first crush on a girl. Ages 9–12. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

April 15, 2019
Grades 4-7 Fig knows her teacher meant well by calling Child Protective Services the day Fig's father pulled her out of class, but all it did was make everything worse. It's been just the two of them since Fig was born, and she knows how to deal with his wild mood swings, but can she convince a caseworker that things are okay? Fig adds their CPS appointment to the calendar, where she counts down the days until hurricane season is over, because her father, a once-famous composer, is drawn to the music of storms, and not even Fig can reach him when they lure him down to the beach. In an effort to better understand him, she pours herself into an art project on Vincent van Gogh, finding parallels between her father's genius and erratic behavior and the painter's. Melleby's debut examines the complexities of having a parent with a mental illness and the responsibilities that kids sometimes must shoulder. Themes of trust and LGBTQ romance are incorporated into this weighty but hopeful story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)