Carry Me Home ~ Janet Fox

Lulu, Serena, and their daddy have been through more in two years than many people endure in a lifetime. As the older sister, Lulu feels a responsibility to take care of everyone and everything. She promised her mom that she would. So even though life has been difficult since leaving Texas and being the weird, poor kids in Montana, Lulu makes the best of it. But one day, her daddy disappears. He’s done it before, but this time feels different, and with winter coming and money dwindling fast, Lulu isn’t sure how to make ends meet. The absolute last thing she’ll do, however, is ask for help. It’s only when things get really, really bad that Lulu realizes just how much the people around her care. 

This is a novel about hardship, grief, hope, and the power of community. Lulu is an incredibly strong and relatable character who will inspire a wide variety of readers. This is a highly accessible novel to even struggling readers, and it would also serve as an excellent book club title or classroom read aloud. 

Maturity: 1/4

I would recommend this novel to students 10+. It contains no mature content.

Pages: 197

Lexile: 790L

Lexile is a score that helps educators and parents match students with an appropriate text. A Lexile score is a measure of both a child’s reading ability and a text difficulty. However, Lexile does not take into account the content of a novel. So, pairing readers with a text is a complex process, and knowledge of a novel’s themes and plot is necessary to make a high-quality recommendation.

If you are curious about the grade-level equivalent to Lexile scores, check out the conversion chart here!

Happy Reading!

XO,

Kara & Riley