See You On a Starry Night by Lisa Schroeder

From Goodreads, 

"Juliet has just moved to a beachside town with her newly separated mother and her moody older sister. When she meets their new neighbor, Emma, the girls form an instant bond. Emma's big family takes Juliet in, and the girls have fun together -- starting with the night they throw bottles with secret messages into the sea.

Then someone writes back to Juliet's message. An email arrives, inviting her to join the Starry Beach Club. All she has to do is make someone else's wish come true.

So Juliet and Emma set off to help as many other people as they can. It's fun! But as Juliet spends more and more time away from home, enjoying her new town and Emma's family more than her own mom and sister, she starts feeling lost. It's been easy to find others to help. But maybe her star would shine a little brighter if she brought it closer to home."

Goodreads - See You On a Starry Night

I've been on a bit of a break from reading.  A few months back I flipped life upside down and made some major changes.  This led to me moving to a new town and a lot of adjustments to the new normal.  But now that summer is here and in full swing I am trying to read as much as possible.  The chair on my front porch and I have become great friends over the past few weeks. 

This book follows a girl named Juliet who has had her life completely uprooted.  Her parents are now divorced and her mom decided that they all needed a fresh start in a new town.  Juliet misses her dad and her friends and the life she used to have.  On the first day in the new town, Juliet walks down to the beach.  What she doesn't expect is that she is going to run into a girl named Emma who is the same age as her.  Emma wants Juliet to write a letter, put it in a bottle, and throw it out to the ocean. The two soon become friends but become closer when Emma's bottle is found.  The person who found the bottle wants Juliet to become a member of the Starry Beach Club and make someone's wish come true.  Juliet and Emma soon set off on a quest to make a wish come true and find out who found the bottle. 

I love that this book addresses the feelings that a child experiences when their parents get a divorce and move to a new town.  Juliet is upset about her parents getting a divorce.  We see her have full-fledged meltdowns.  I think many kids who have been through or are going through the separation of parents can connect with Juliet.  I also like that in this book we see Juliet, her mom, and her sister move to a new town for a fresh start.  Juliet struggles with the new move.  She misses her dad and her friends from her old town.  She is having to start at a new school and will be going in with no friends.  She is clearly overwhelmed with all the changes.  Kids will absolutely relate to this if they have ever had to move to a new school and leave their old friends behind.  I also really liked that this book addresses the anger that is experienced during a big life transition like Juliet was going through.  Near the end of the book, we see everything kind of pile up inside Juliet until she explodes.  Luckily, her family and Emma are there to help her through the tough time and she learns how to better express herself and her anger.  I haven't read many books written for middle school kids that address divorce and moving to a new school like this book does.  

While this book addressed the divorce/moving situation tastefully, there were a couple BIG problems.  The biggest issue with this book was that Juliet was emailing someone who she did not know.  Every time she emailed the person or they emailed her, I was thinking that it could be a predator.  Juliet was just freely talking with someone who she didn't know.  I felt like there was a missed opportunity here.  Schroeder should have written it in for Juliet or Emma's parents to find out about this mystery person so they could have a conversation about being safe online.  And even worse is that Juliet and Emma set up a time to meet this mystery person!  Which luckily it ended up being a girl that was their age and went to school with them.  But still!  These two girls have obviously not been taught about being safe online and not meeting up with strangers.  Also, I didn't like that Juliet's mom just let Juliet go to the beach unsupervised.  It felt extremely irresponsible on the part of her mom, especially since they just moved to a new town.  I also didn't like that Juliet met Emma on the very first day in town.  I felt like Juliet needed to just kind of soak in the aloneness for a chapter or two before she met Emma.  I just didn't feel like it was realistic for Juliet to meet Emma the very first day during her very first walk on the beach.  

Overall, this book had great coverage of divorce and moving to a new town.  But I was so bothered by the fact that no one in this book had ever been taught about internet safety.  And the fact that it was never addressed honestly left me upset because this is such a huge thing with kids having access to ALL kinds of technology 24/7.  I give this 2 stars.  It will of course go into my classroom library, but it isn't high on my recommendation list.