Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Yesterday I finally decided to bite the bullet and order a right-hand wrist brace for what I suspect is a worsening case of carpal tunnel in my right arm–because of course, back when I had what my OB called ‘pregnant carpal tunnel,’ it was in my left wrist, and so THAT brace isn’t doing me any good. I ordered three because a)I wasn’t sure which reasonably priced one would be best and b)if I hit over $25 of qualifying items–and they all qualified–it was supposed to be same-day delivery.

Guess what didn’t come yesterday.

On the up side, all three did come before 8:10 this morning, when I left to walk my youngest to school, and I’m thinking I’ll keep two of them. On the downside, wearing one while typing doesn’t seem to be a practical possibility, so the tingly-numb-sort-of-pain is real. My hubby and I did have a really positive conversation with our oldest last night, though, and so I’m still feeling pretty good about life today. AND I finished reading Angela Cervantes’ Gaby, Lost and Found aloud to my 15-year-old the night before, so that’s another up. If we’d known that it’s connected to Lety Out Loud but takes place before it we would have read them in chronological order, but oh, well. It wasn’t a huge deal.

The two books have a good bit in common–both have female main characters who love animals and are volunteering (with their classmates) at an animal shelter–but their conflicts differ; Lety has a solid home life but is struggling with her classmates, while Gaby has a wider friend circle but a difficult home life. Her dad returned to stay with her after her mom was deported, but he’s not amazing at parenting and Gaby’s just holding on until her mom can home…except that crossing the border illegally is dangerous, and so the situation is more complicated than Gaby wants it to be. Add to that a special cat with returning owners that may be worse at pet-care than her dad is at parenting, and you have difficulties all around. The resolution is positive yet imperfect, making it realistic in a way that didn’t spoil the book for my tender-hearted 15-year-old but tore at my mother-heart a bit.

Bottom line? This is a solid book that does a lovely job of building empathy; every kid really ought to read it.