If you have a kid who is chronically the "easy one," you need to put this on their nightstand. Cat is an 11-year-old who doesn’t just help out; she manages the household emotional climate. It is a heavy burden that many kids—especially those with siblings who have special needs—carry without being asked. McDunn captures that specific kind of exhaustion without making the book feel like a lecture on family therapy.
The weight of being the "glue"
The story centers on the relationship between Cat and her brother, Chicken. While the book doesn't use a specific medical label for Chicken, his needs are the sun that the rest of the family orbits. Cat is the primary "Chicken-whisperer," the one who can de-escalate a meltdown when their mom is stuck at work.
The friction comes when they are dropped into a summer with grandparents they’ve never met. Suddenly, Cat doesn't have to be the only adult in the room. Watching her struggle to let go of that control is heartbreaking because it’s so realistic. She has been the glue for so long that she doesn't know how to just be a kid at the beach. If your child is a perfectionist or a "people pleaser," they will see themselves in Cat’s reluctance to stop working.
High stakes in a quiet setting
Don’t let the "summer on an island" vibe fool you into thinking this is a breezy beach read. The tension is real. Chicken has a tendency to wander off, and those scenes are written with a visceral sense of panic. For a reader who has a sibling with similar tendencies, these moments might be a bit too close to home.
There is also a subplot involving a group of local boys that introduces a different kind of conflict. One of the boys is physically aggressive toward his younger brother, which serves as a sharp, painful contrast to how Cat protects Chicken. It isn't gratuitous, but it adds a layer of "real world" grit to the story that keeps it from feeling like a sanitized fable about forgiveness.
Who this is for
This book sits comfortably on the shelf next to Lynda Mullaly Hunt or Ali Benjamin. It has that same 4.8 Amazon-level polish where the prose is simple enough for a fourth grader but the emotional stakes are high enough for a middle schooler.
It’s particularly effective because it handles family estrangement with a level of nuance we don't often see in middle-grade fiction. The rift between the mom and the grandparents isn't solved with a single conversation. It takes the whole summer. It shows kids that adults are messy, they hold grudges, and they can eventually grow up, too. If your kid liked the emotional resonance of The Thing About Jellyfish, this is the logical next step. It’s a "quiet" book, but the impact is loud.
