The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Spain forms a vivid backdrop to the girls’ confusion and revelations, and Avery and Kayla are each so completely sympathetic that it’s hard to choose whom to root for when they’re at war. Through chapters told in alternating points of view, Haddix offers a fully realized portrayal of teen girls dealing with the vagaries of their parents’ lives.

It takes a near tragedy to make them realize that while they might not have chosen this path, how they move forward is their choice. In Spain, the two white girls struggle to find their places among the locals and their language class friends as a jaw-dropping revelation changes their relationship forever. But for Kayla, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime, a huge gift her family could never afford. When she finds out that he’s already chosen a “friend” to accompany her-Kayla, an older girl she used to play with as a little kid-the summer feels even more doomed. Still, it shines a light on surrogacy, a topic rarely discussed in YA fiction.įor two American teens, a summer trip to Europe turns out to be far more complicated than they ever expected.Avery doesn’t want to go to Spain with her dad-she’ll fall behind in soccer and he’ll just be working all the time.

Despite probing some of the same themes as Robin Benway’s Far from the Tree (2017), Haddix’s story doesn’t carry quite the same emotional heft. Madrid constitutes a worthy backdrop for this summer of self-discovery and questioning, as Kayla and Avery sort out their own histories amid a growing understanding of the larger world. Short chapters alternate between the girls’ points of view as they reel from the exposure of the long-held family secret. Once in Spain, the girls are rocked by the revelation that 14 years ago, Kayla’s mother was the gestational carrier for Avery when her biological mother couldn’t become pregnant. But for Kayla, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime, taking her far from her small-town life, where her closest friends are the geriatrics at the nursing home where her dad, an injured veteran, lives.

When the father of rich, athletic 14-year-old Avery Armisted invites 16-year-old Kayla Butts, an old childhood friend, on their summer trip to Spain, Avery could not be less thrilled.

The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix