Finding harmony

key selling points

• harmony's finally allowed to leave foster care and go home to her mother, who struggles with drug addiction and alcoholism, but harmony feels like the only one trying to make it work.
• the book's wise-beyond-her-years narrator, harmony, shows us a child's experience of the foster care system and of living with a parent struggling so hard with their own mental health issues and addictions that the child essentially raises herself. yet, the book also demonstrates how kids can resist and persevere in even the direst circumstances.
• harmony finds helpers throughout her story—including her supportive friends at her new school, her principal (who also grew up in foster care) and the owner of the corner store, mr. khaled, who is a syrian refugee—giving readers a sense of hope and faith in community.
• the multigenerational friendship between harmony and mr. khaled shows two people who have survived difficult circumstances finding common ground and sheds light on the immigrant experience.
• this book is a prequel to the governor general's award-winning the king of jam sandwiches, focusing on robbie's friend harmony.