All The Impossible Things- A Must-Read New Middle Grade Novel

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Some books have a way of simultaneously breaking your heart and making it swell. All The Impossible Things was a gut-wrenchingly beautiful story that captured my heart and attention.  I hope that my words can do this book justice because it is just so special! I can’t wait to share it with you!

All The Impossible Things

Ruby “Red” Byrd is a young girl that is trying to find her way while navigating the foster care system. Red has been moved from home to home and is counting down the days until she is reunited with her mother. 397 days. 397 days until Red’s mother is released from prison and they can be a family again. In addition to the turbulence of being moved from place to place, Red has an inner turbulence. Whenever she is angry or scared, the wind begins to blow. Red is struggling to control her power over the wind, the more she pushes it back, the more it tries to come to the surface. The more and more Red’s life spirals out of control, the more control she loses over her wind!

After being removed from another home, Red is finally placed with the Grooves. Jackson and Celine Groove are sunshine on a stormy day. They greet Red with open arms. The Grooves run the Groovy Petting  Zoo and they are just as quirky and loveable as their zany array of animals. Red seems to be settling into her life at the farm and makes friends with a  tree-climbing goat named Billie, a donkey named Fezzik, and Tuck the tortoise! Not to mention sweet Marvin and his family! Just when things seem to be running smoothly, the tornado that is Red’s mother returns. Red has been so eager to have her mother back…but will things be different this time? Will Red finally have the family she has always dreamed of?

My Thoughts

To say that this book blew me away would be an understatement. I was hooked from the first few pages and couldn’t put it down. I was so invested in the story and the characters that I HAD to know what happened. Let’s just say very little laundry got done and my kids may have eaten cereal for dinner…but it was worth it!

Author Lindsay Lackey writes in such an incredible way that it made the characters come alive for me. I felt the emotions right along with them. Anger, fear, sorrow, happiness, disappointment, joy…I felt it all! As someone who has no experience with the foster care system, I was worried that I  might not have a connection to the book. The opposite was true. I felt so connected to the story and to the characters. Lackey tackles several extremely heavy topics in the pages of the book, such as loss and addiction, and she handles them so beautifully and gently but without minimizing their seriousness.

About halfway through the book, I decided I had to get my hands on every other book that Lindsay Lackey has ever written. I fell in love with her writing style. You guys…this was her debut novel! MIND.BLOWN. I hope that this will be the first of many amazing books to come! She is a gifted storyteller and I think this is going to be the first of many beautiful books!

If you are looking for a beautiful story with elements of magic, adventure, heartache, and love, then this is an absolute gem you don’t want to miss. I would like to thank Macmillan for sending me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

About the Author

Lindsay Lackey has trained as an opera singer, worked in children’s and teen services at the public library, and for a major publishing house in publicity and marketing. Now, she writes magical novels for middle-grade readers and unabashedly believes in impossible things. Born and raised in Colorado, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their spoiled dog.

Lindsay’s debut middle grade novel, ALL THE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS, released on September 3rd, 2019 from Macmillan’s Roaring Brook Press.

For more information on Lindsay Lackey, you can find her website here.

To order your own copy, click right here.