I feel like this is the kind of book you’d sit down and read in one sitting on a pleasant afternoon because it’ll make you feel warm and happy in the end. At least, that’s how I felt. It was a very pleasant read and I’m happy everything turned out okay in the end. ( )

Here's a thing that will not change: I love Rebecca Stead's books! ( )

Bea, 12, reflects on life since her parents’ divorce when she was 8.

Bea, who is white, tells her story in a direct, conversational tone, with age-appropriate insights. Mostly she describes interactions with family members near and far, including her parents and her father’s partner, the aunt, uncle, and cousins with whom she and her parents spend an annual two-week summer vacation, and the new sister by marriage whose visit she eagerly anticipates. Glimpses of her school experiences focus on frustrations or antagonisms, like her struggle with spelling or the times that she allows her anger to spill out and cause (minor) injury to others. Stead packs in plenty of issues—divorce, therapy, a gay parent, homophobia, and a painful case of eczema—but her prose never descends to moralizing or moaning. Instead, Bea’s authentic, accessible voice and smooth interweaving of anecdotes keep the tone relatively light and make for a sometimes-amusing, sometimes-poignant exploration of realistic contemporary experiences and concerns. The acknowledgements that not every problem can be solved and that doing a bad thing does not necessarily make someone a bad person will reassure readers that they too can find balance and comfort in complicated circumstances. Supported by multidimensional, sympathetic family and friends, Bea ultimately finds that her list of certainties provides the necessary foundation for personal growth—and change.

Uplifting without sentimentality, timely not trendy, and utterly engaging. (Fiction. 8-12)
(Kirkus Review)

My List of Things That Will Not Change:

1.) This book is a very easy middle grade read. I read it in a day myself
2.) It is a story with a very modern family--divorced parents, step-siblings, gay parent.
3.) This book handles an individual's "coming out" really well
4.) This book also handles anxiety and going to a counselor very well. Normally books don't paint counselors/therapists in the best light, but this one does. The character is more than a throwaway part of the story.
5.) This book is about love and acceptance more than anything else
6.) Family can look a variety of different ways and sometimes, there is adjustment to that

In all seriousness, "The List of Things That Will Not Change" is a homage to family. Of loving no matter what. Of extending grace. Of being the bigger person. The scene at the dads' wedding is one that moved me beyond words.

So why give it 3 stars? Well, I liked it. Didn't love it....but still thought it was great!
( )

Bea tells a story about the time she was 10 years old about her past, therapy visits, and parents. I liked the book until about the wedding scene. I thought it was really off, why did Mission come for the week just to be an ass and knock over the cake and tell his brother not to? I thought it would be nice to see change and reconciliation but I know that doesn’t always happen.

I also had to read the last section twice, because it was so random about her dad and his brother and didn’t know why it wasn’t placed elsewhere in the story, just a random last section. ( )