Jacqueline Woodson is on my list of autobuy authors. Ever since If You Come Softly, I’ve been hooked. So naturally when Harbor Me came out, I purchased it. I read ~15% of it on my pomodoro breaks and the rest on my way home from work today (no, I wasn’t driving). Haven’t heard of Harbor Me? Here’s what it’s about (from Goodreads)

It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat—by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for “A Room to Talk”), they discover it’s safe to talk about what’s bothering them—everything from Esteban’s father’s deportation and Haley’s father’s incarceration to Amari’s fears of racial profiling and Ashton’s adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.

From the perspective of a teacher, there’s no way we’d leave six kids unsupervised in school. That’s a recipe for trouble. But if you can suspend that disbelief for a minute, there’s an amazing story here.