Problem novels are those in which a prevailing social problem, such as racial or class prejudice, mental illness, poverty, or something else, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel. These kinds of novels are popular in middle grade realistic fiction because they are supposed to help children understand and cope with these issues and problems. I dunno. Sometimes the story itself transcends the problem-of-the-week genre, sometimes not.

Anyway, I read, and for the most part enjoyed, the following problem novels published in 2021:

Carry Me Home by Janet Fox. Issue: Homelessness. Twelve year old Lulu and her little sister Serena are living in a Suburban parked in a trailer park with their Daddy. Mama died of cancer. When Daddy doesn’t come to pick them up from after school care one day, Lulu must take care of Serena by herself while keeping the secret of their homelessness and abandonment from the authorities since Lulu is sure that if anyone finds out about their plight the girls will be separated and never find their Daddy again. The chapters alternate between “now” and “before” and “way before”, telling about Lulu’s struggle to provide for herself and her sister and about the family’s backstory of how they came to be homeless and alone. At 193 pages, it’s short, sweet, and ultimately encouraging in showing that there are people in the world who can be trusted and who will help.

Breathing Underwater by Sarah Allen. Issue: Depression, helping a family member who is mentally ill. Thirteen year old Olivia is sure that this road trip from Tennessee to California along with the photographs that Olivia will capture with her new camera along the way will be the keys to helping her older sister Ruth remember the happiness that the sisters used to share. Taking pictures and making memories as well as unearthing the time capsule the two sisters buried years before just must be enough to shake Ruth out of her depression and make her smile. The trip doesn’t quite turn out the way Olivia plans, and I must admit to mixed feelings about this book that didn’t turn out exactly the way I wanted. The theme is personal for me since I have family members who deal with depression, and like Olivia, I’m not sure how to go about loving or caring for or even talking to them sometimes. So, while I didn’t find this story to be, well, depressing, I also didn’t find any great revelations here. I did identify with Olivia and her desire to help as well as her fear of saying the wrong thing or not saying the right thing. And I did want to shake the negativity and moodiness and self-destructive behaviors right out of Ruth (not a solution, I know).

Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Issue: Trauma recovery. Aduago (A-DAH-go, Addy, for short) is haunted by her incomplete memories of the fire that she escaped as a young child but that killed her parents. Her grandmother guardian sends Addy to a wilderness summer camping program out west that is supposed to introduce black inner city teens to the joys and dangers of living close to nature. I hated the writing style in this novel. The sentences are short and choppy and fragmentary. Lots of sentence fragments. Survival skills. Addy is growing. Then comes the fire. (You get the idea.) But the story itself, inspired by the Camp Fire in 2018 that destroyed the town of Paradise, California, is compelling. If you can get used to the way it’s written, you might really like this book, especially if you like survival stories.

Boy, Everywhere by A.M. Dassu and World In Between by Kenan Trebincevic. Issue: refugee resettlement. Boy, Everywhere “chronicles the harrowing journey taken from Syria to the UK by Sami and his family, from privilege to poverty, across countries and continents, from a smuggler’s den in Turkey to a prison in Manchester, England.” World In Between, based on the author’s own experiences, tells about Kenan’s journey from Bosnia to the United States. Both books are decently written, worth reading to get different insights into the refugee experience. But neither book is nearly as memorable as last year’s Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri.

Playing the Cards You’re Dealt by Varian Johnson. Issues: gambling addiction, family secrets. I feel as if Varian Johnson is a good writer who just hasn’t quite hit his stride. This story of a boy, Anthony–Ant for short, who has a family legacy to uphold in the annual community spades tournament is good, but just not great. (Spades is a card game, by the way.) The reveal about the story’s narrator at the end of the book is clever, and Ant is a believable and lovable character. It’s a lot like Louis Sachar’s book, The Cardturner, but I liked Sachar’s book better because it didn’t feature a problem-of-the-week to be solved.