See You At Harry's by Jo Knowles

See You At Harry's by Jo Knowles 
(Candlewick, May 2012)

Summary from publisher:
Twelve-year-old Fern feels invisible.  Her dad is forever planning how to boost business at the family restaurant.  Her mom is going off to meditate.  Her sister, Sara, who's taking a year off after high school, is too busy finding ways not to work, and her brother Holden is totally focused on his new "friend." And then there's Charlie:  three years and the center of everything.
If it wasn't for Ran, there would be nowhere to turn.  His mantra, "All will be well," soothes in a way that nothing else can.  Fern almost believes it.
But when their lives are unexpectedly turned upside down, Fern feels more alone than ever, and responsible for the devastating event that wrenches the family apart.  All will not be well, Or at least, all will never be the same.

This is an ARC I picked up at NCTE back in November, but I just got around to reading it.  I'm so glad I read it when I had time to sit and read the whole thing at once.  There was so much I loved about the book... the fact that the kids in the family are named after literary characters:  Fern (Charlotte's Web), Holden (Catcher in the Rye), Sara (A Little Princess), and Charlie (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory); Fern's friend Ran and his cryptic tees; and the father's harebrained ideas to improve business, just to name a few.  But even more, I loved that Knowles made this family seem real.  No one was perfect, the parents were in the picture, and even though they are good people, bad things happen.  It's hard to write more about that without spoiling the story, so I'm just going to leave it at that.

One of the big issues Fern's family has to face is the fact that Holden is gay.  Although he hasn't admitted it to his parents, his sisters know and many people at the school suspect.  Holden endures some stiff bullying because of his sexual orientation, and that bullying bleeds over onto Fern when she tries to stick up for her big brother.  I was cheering Holden on as he thumbed his nose at the small town mentality, though I wondered if in real life he would have been bullied even more, given some of his decisions.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.  It's a great realistic fiction story that will appeal to both boys and girls, and I look forward to getting it into the hands of my readers at school.  While there are references to Holden's homosexuality, there are no sexual references or even blue language.  This book will definitely have a home in my classroom library.