Pavi Sharma's Guide to Going Home

by Bridget Farr

The Fosters meets The Great Gilly Hopkins in this moving novel, featuring foster kid Pavi Sharma as she sets off on an important mission to save a fellow foster kid from the home that still haunts her nightmares.

Twelve-year-old Pavi Sharma is an expert at the Front Door Face: the perfect mix of puppy dog eyes and a lemonade smile, the exact combination to put foster parents at ease as they open their front door to welcome you in. After being bounced around between foster families and shelter stays, Pavi is a foster care expert, and she runs a "business" teaching other foster kids all she has learned. With a wonderful foster family in mom Marjorie and brother Hamilton, things are looking up for Pavi.

Then Pavi meets Meridee: a new five-year-old foster kid, who is getting placed at Pavi's first horrendous foster home. Pavi knows no one will trust a kid about what happened on Lovely Lane, even one as mature as she is, so it's up to her to save Meridee.

With help from Hamilton, brooding eighth grader Santos, and Hamilton's somewhat obnoxious BFF Piper, they set off on an important mission with life-changing stakes. Pavi will stop at nothing to keep Meridee safe.

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary, Fiction, Childrens, Audiobook, Family

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 17, 2019

Reviews

[Autumn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty disappointed in this one. It really thinks it's doing the right thing by focusing on a tough foster kid, but I was really turned off by the facile ending, the adorable little black girl used as a plot device, and the superheroic white foster mom with her Jane Austen bobblehead and Aretha Franklin music. Also, I found the focus on scary scary Rottweilers to be a little classist, honestly. All the hot Cheetos references and Youtube tutorial talk gave me hope for this one, but turns out it's totally for cops and pantsuit nation.

[Kathy (Bermudaonion) · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a foster kid herself, Pavi knows what it’s like to be shuffled from place to place and long for family. Now that she’s in a stable home, she’s started a business to help other foster kids. When she meets a young girl just entering the system and learns she’s being sent to a toxic environment, she has to do something.

Pavi is a great character - she’s smart, resourceful and caring - and I think young readers will love her. Her story is unique and, hopefully, it will give young readers in traditional homes a peek into what it’s like to be a foster kid.

[Jessa Franco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely find foster care in fiction and was pleasantly surprised by this one.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a tender and insightful book with a delightful array of characters. Pavi is a scrappy heroine, and Hamilton is an awesome sidekick. I've long been passionate about adoption, but I've never taken much time to consider the foster care system from the perspective of kids who do not expect to be adopted but hope against hope to be reunited with their families. This book fleshes such a perspective out, and does not give false hope or a cheesy ending, but rather a sense of hope for the current circumstance. Really wonderful. Please read it!

[Madison Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. The story was cutesy, but I didn’t care for the author’s voice. It felt inauthentic.

[Wendy Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to read this and up until the point of the dog-fighting scene really loved it. I loved Pavi's voice and the way her business advice revealed a lot of emotion behind her past experiences in foster homes. This is the third book I've read this year with single women as foster mothers, but I felt like this one dealt with the foster experience in a way that made it more palatable for those who have never lived that experience, but is that really the aim? I was just so blindsided by the puppy incident and my anxiety got so intense that I just couldn't go on.

[Maura (thenovelmaura) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. CW: child neglect, dogfighting
I grabbed this old ARC for #APICelebrAsian and #MiddleGradeMay (I think this is a thing...) and only realized once I started reading it that it wasn't an OwnVoices book. Racial issues aren't really addressed in the story, so I didn't have a problem with it in this case, but I wanted to make that clear since I had intended to read it for AAPI Heritage month.

I have trouble reviewing middle grade fiction sometimes because I don't read a lot of it and I don't know the genre expectations. I do know that I would recommend this one to older kids due to the above content warnings! To explain a little more about the dogfighting, this is something that Pavi witnessed in her first foster home that traumatized her. I do think it was a good way to introduce the concept of bad foster homes that didn't involve physical or sexual abuse. Pavi's physical and emotional wellbeing were neglected in that home, but that's easier for the foster system to overlook than outright physical abuse would have been.

It's a good introduction to the foster care system and I think Pavi was a fun and realistic protagonist. For the most part she seemed confident about her place in the world, but you could also see how she had trouble trusting others and wanted to handle everything herself. Her schemes to help Meridee were fun to follow along with (even though my adult brain knew there was no way they would work).

And athough some of the side characters felt a bit like caricatures, I don't think the intended audience would take issue with that. While I wasn't blown away by this one, it would be a solid choice for parents and guardians who want to start a larger conversation about the foster care system!

[Jennybeast · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sort of split on this book -- on the one hand, I genuinely enjoyed reading it. I thought Pavi and her community of friends/foster support were interesting, the plot was well paced, and I just wanted to know what would happen next. I appreciate that it appears to be well researched, if not own voices, and that she worked with a team of readers who could give real feedback on accuracy/sensitivity. I also quite liked the ending and the portrayal of the foster system as a whole -- there are a lot of things that are really screwed up in our world and in that system, but there are also a lot of people who are doing everything they can to create safe and loving homes for kids, and none of its perfect, and the book represents that well.

On the other hand -- Pavi's really good at social manipulation -- at navigating the hoops (like homework and attendance) that give you more power with adults. And it seems like she really wants to help the other kids she meets, but there's something off about the business -- it's clever, it feeds into that social manipulation that she enjoys, and that benefits her in a tangible way (snacks and office supplies), but the fact that she doesn't actually involve adults in it is a bit confusing to me. And I found the depictions of her relationship with her mom really vague -- why is she in the foster system? She never really spells it out -- drugs? Mental illness? -- not that it matters to the reader, but it's had to understand why she is where she is, and how she developed this particular brand of coping.

I don't know. Like I said -- enjoyable read, something's off about it, but I can't point at it directly. Is it accurate? No idea.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting. It's a well-written and pretty riveting middle grade book about an entrepreneurial girl named Pavi who has spent years in the foster system and shares her acquired wisdom with other foster kids who are facing a transition- in exchange for snacks and brand name school supplies. She is currently in a comfortable foster home and doing good business, when she finds out a very little girl that she barely knows is going to a placement that still gives her nightmares.

This is how her quest begins.

The strength of this books lies in its well-developed characters and well-paced plot, two elements that are often lacking in middle grade fiction. I think that some of the material is too heavy for 3rd grade (the lower end of the recommended age). There's one scene particularly that describes a heartbreaking dogfight that I'm not going to let my 12 year old read.

There are a few things that bugged me a little. One was how undamaged the main character is written. Even resilient kids have trauma after being shuffled around, and that trauma often doesn't manifest itself in obvious ways. You see this a little in the character of Santos, but Pavi is a little uncomplicated and unrealistic.

I just finished reading and can't put my finger on why I feel a little unsettled about this one. I will definitely be thinking about this book in the days to come. On the whole an engaging read!



I recieved an advanced copy of this book at the Book Expo 2019.

[Andrew Eder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a warm and easy to read book. I really felt the love from the characters and their relationships with one another, which is a challenge as a writer to convey to readers.

I loved Pavi’s attitude and work ethic. She was such a strong character that was really trying to fill the hole in her life by helping others, something we’ve all tried to do before.

Hamilton and Santos were awesome characters, too, completing their Motley Crew of investigators.

My favorite character was Marjorie. She was soft, loving, accepting, and most importantly a listener. She valued her kids’ thoughts and experiences above her own impressions. She was patient and solved problems. She really cared so deeply for helping others in a very real and tangible way. Reading about Marjorie really made me think about the possibility in my life of fostering and adopting. She wasn’t a huge main character in the book, but she had the biggest impact on me.

I wish there was more of a clear conclusion on Pavi and her life. I would’ve loved to see or hear something more about the “Before”. The beginning of the book really stressed the difference between “Before” and “After” and then nothing really came of it.

I also would’ve loved more backstory with Santos, the quiet mysterious tough guy. EVERYONE loves to read that those characters are always soft teddy bears on the inside. Give the people what they want!!

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foster kid story, where the main character is basically the opposite of Gilly Hopkins. She's smart, she's figured out how to work the system, and now that she's in a good placement herself, she runs a little business helping other foster kids be prepared to handle their placements, by doing research on foster parents, schools, and systems, and coaching them to make the best impression.
On the other hand, underneath her got-it-togetherness, she's got some bad memories of a former placement: and when she finds out another little kid is getting sent there, she becomes obsessed with rescuing them from it by any means necessary, including getting some help from her foster brother, from a 'client' and maybe some unexpected others.

Let's be honest: Pavi can work the system because she's smart and well-behaved most of the time, and she makes the most of it when she needs to. Where other kids might get in big trouble when caught meeting with an older kid in a dark classroom or cheating on paper because she's too tired/stressed to do it Pavi's respectful, supportive teachers and adults work with her. But Pavi can't/doesn't trust them enough to help this situation.
I may not have been in foster care, but I know the 'hiding by keeping it together but not feeling good enough' routine, and I did it too at the ages of 12-14. So, Pavi rings true if somewhat opaque. Hamilton and Piper and Santos could have used some fleshing out.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What is home for us foster kids?”

Pavi Sharma has a mission. She wants to ensure that every foster kids who leaves the Crossroads shelter is taken in by a good foster family, so she follows up with all the kids that she can, interviewing them about their placement.

She’s been in the system a long time herself. Her current foster situation isn’t bad: Margery, her foster mom is strict, but fair, and Hamilton, her foster brother is a good friend. But she hasn’t always been that lucky. There was the house at 702 Lovely Lane where her foster parents didn’t seem to care if she was there or not. A meal was anything you could find in the fridge that wasn’t spoiled. And they had dogs ... dogs that were used to fight other dogs. Pavi saw some pretty awful things before she left and she still has nightmares.

Now one of her “clients” is about to be assigned to 702 Lovely Lane. Her name is Meridee and she’s only 5 years old. Pavi knows that she has to do something to keep Meridee from going to that home. With the help of Hamilton and his BFF Piper (a budding youtuber), they devise a plan and spring into action, with some surprising results.

A tender story with a spunky main character trying to help others and ends up helping herself, too. Recommended for 5th grade and up.

[Chrysa Keenon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free ARC copy of this book at Book Expo, so all opinions are my own!

I was super excited to pick this book up because the foster care system has interested me in a while, and the idea of having a story set in it was a great premise! "Pavi Sharma's Guide" is a charming story about a girl who was traumatized by a family in the system and tries anything to prevent one of her friends, a younger girl, being put in the same situation.

I loved the concept and a few of the characters shined, such as Hamilton and Meridee, but I was a little put off by Pavi herself. My main issue was that Pavi's voice seemed much older than a twelve-year-old and I found it hard to connect emotionally with her. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a MG and not a YA. I wish Pavi's character would have been more fleshed out, along with the adults in the story. I think this story could have been much longer and more complex since it's such a hard concept to squeeze into 262 pages.

But that being said, the book was still amazingly enjoyable! The author clearly knows the jargon of the foster system and did her research. :) I felt this story could really happen!

[Beth Mendelsohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book at Book Expo America 2019. All opinions are my own.

Pavi Sharma, a 12 year old foster child, is happy with her latest placement. She runs a “business” helping other foster children get ready for their new families with techniques to help put them and their new foster families at ease. When five year old Meridee comes to the shelter, of course Pavi wants to help her. Pavi finds out that Meridee is going to Pavi’s first and most horrendous foster home and hatches a plan to keep her from going there. With the help of her foster brother Hamilton, his best friend Piper, and older foster kid Santos, she just might be able to do it.

I felt some of the characters could use a little more development. While Pavi’s character is well developed, Hamilton and mom Marjorie could have used more. In its ARC form, it is only 262 pages, so there is room for expansion. It did remind me a bit of Greetings from Witness Protection by Jake Burt in that both girls are in foster care and both have their own “businesses.” That being said, I did enjoy this middle grade story.

[Alexa Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pavi is a foster kid who is running a small business helping other foster kids do better in their placements. She has a great foster mother and brother, and eventually, has to let them in to what she is doing, even though she is trying to be strong. And she is strong! And really smart, and aware. But sometimes, her emotions based on her past experiences are too big, even for her.

Not having experienced any of this myself, I did think the way Pavi described her feelings of kinship with other foster kids rang true. Her looking to the future also rang true. This isn't a happily ever after book but rather a happy for now book, because Pavi's life has some different twists and turns than kids growing up in their biological families. This book addressed many of those issues while still holding humor, friendship and emotional growth.

I have a few quibbles, one is that her foster mother is a teacher but we never hear about whether they knew each other before she was at the school. It does seem like foster kids in this area move schools a lot, based on some other kids, but it was a detail I would have liked addressed.

[Terry Maguire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pavi Sharma is an enterprising middle schooler who tries to help fellow foster kids by researching their potential family placements. When Parvi learns that a child from her former group home is going to be placed with one of her own former foster families, the Nickersons, with whom she had terrible experiences, she springs into action with the help of her current foster brother, Hamilton, and a friend from school, Santos. This is a suspenseful book from the start because the reader is wondering what happened to Pavi when she was at the Nickerson's home. The reader is also wondering what happened to Pavi's mother, which is never resolved. Pavi is a well-developed, engaging character though aspects of her business feel a bit far-fetched. Given that this was a debut novel, it's easy to forgive some of its flaws and there's enough in it for it to be a recommended read. I suspect that future works from Ms. Farr will be even stronger (more of a 3.5 read than a straight 3!).

[Carol M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foster child Pavi Sharma has been in the system for awhile and has learned some survival skills along the way. For a fee of junk food and school supplies she helps other foster kids transition to new schools, get used to new families and perfect their “front door” face. She still has connections at the group home where she stayed for awhile and uses it as a source of information and new clients. While helping new client Santos, Pavi meets a young girl, Meridee and learns that Meridee is going to be placed in Pavi’s first foster home, where she was ignored and scared. She shares her worries with a former counselor who does not share her concerns. She assembles a team: her new brother, his best friend and Santos to gather evidence against Meridee’s foster family and safe her. This story is exciting and offers an understanding of the foster care system for middle grade readers.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a review.

[Carola · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is geared for readers 8-12 years old. It was recommended to me at my local library because the librarian in the children's section knows that I volunteer as a court-appointed special advocate (CASA) for children in the foster care system. It realistically presents a number of the challenges for children in "the system" without getting bogged down in the serious trauma that some of these children experience. The librarian said it has been criticized in some reviews because Pavi is portrayed as being ambivalent to her Indian heritage, but I felt this was addressed directly when Pavi explains how having been moved around to so many families has prevented her from really knowing about her birth family's foods and traditions. The capers of Pavi and her friends are not entirely realistic, but feel consistent with fiction directed at this age group.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a good read! I think I finished it in like a day because I was just super interested in the story and loved the characters. I also have been so busy reading books for various book clubs lately that it was refreshing to just read a book for me. This was one of those books where the kids don't tell adults things that they really should, which kind of drives me crazy, but that's kind of what makes all these middle grade stories work. :) I thought Pavi was such a cool person, and I loved her relationship with both Hamilton and Santos. Definitely recommend this book. I only wish that the author was either Indian-American or a foster child herself, but it sounds like the based the story on her husband, who is ethnically Indian and grew up in the Canadian foster care system. So definitely still some authenticity there.

[Jennifer Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! Pavi Sharma is a foster kid and has been for a while. The house she is in now is a single mom and son. It is great! But it wasn't always that way. Pavi has a "business" of helping foster kids with their new placements. She researches the family they're going to and if they are going to a new school, etc. She meets Meridee at the community center for fosters and decides she is going to help her because she finds out Meridee is going to one of Pavi's previous placement homes and it is not good.

This book seems so real. I love the diversity of characters, emotions, the way kids can not handle their life the way an adult might, but also the heart they have to help each other even when their physical appearance might not seem like it.

[c · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review copy courtesy of Edelweiss.

I liked this book a lot. Perfect for students with unconventional families. Pavi is a foster kid who has lived with many families, but as the story begins she has turned her knowledge into a business where she gives insight and advice to foster newbies. That enough was an intriguing premise, but then the story continues as Pavi fears another newbie girl is being sent to an evil family, and tries to stop this, pulling in her foster brother and one of her clients into her shenanigans. The story is realistic about life in foster care without being too dreadful and has a funny, interesting voice.

[Tracy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good insight into the emotions and issues that children in foster care deal with. I was a bit confused as to how the dogs were not noticed in the original inspections of the foster family, but I do understand that foster families are too often not ideal placements. I loved Pavi's business of helping other children navigate foster care, but again I felt that in the real world she would have had more difficulty getting all the information she passed along.

All in all a positive story about a very stressful situation faced by too many children every day.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this is a great book. It teaches kids that it is ok to be in the foster care system. This book is about how Pavi, her foster brother Hamilton and their friend try to save a girl from a foster home that Pavi did not have a good experience with before. It shows how kids can be good in this world, and that they do whatever they can to prevent something tha they don't want, like Pavi did. In my opinion, this is a great book that I loved to read and I would read it again. I love the storyline, I love the plot of the book.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great addition to the foster care category of middle-grade books. Pavi seems like she has it all together. So much so that she's helping other foster kids navigate their journey. But her can-do attitude is layered on past pain and she works to confront and combat. ...The ending, that Pavi's memories are skewed by her child's point of view was a little disappointing but probably realistic.

[Jaymie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a great foster care story (Touch Blue, A List of Cages) and this is a great one. I especially loved Pavi and the business she develops helping other foster kids to have successful placements and transitions. I expected a bigger punch/reveal at the climax of this, but in retrospect that would probably have moved the book to YA. The characters ultimately made this book for me - they are fantastic. Lots of good material for book group or class discussion.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, there is a lot going on here. I almost started crying in public. Pavi's first-person narration is really compelling and entertaining. The storyline is incredibly poignant in many places, but never saccharine. There are a couple of plot holes (don't social workers visit houses before foster parents are certified?) but I think the strength of Pavi's voice outweighs them. References to pregnancy or infant loss and the death of a dog--for more mature kids.

[Heather Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. At first, this story felt juvenile and soft but as the story continues, so do the layers deepen. The kids crackpot schemes may seem like poor choices but make perfect sense through the lens of a kid whose been jerked around by the system. This is definitely on the glossy side of real, but would serve as a gentle introduction to the foster care system for kids who aren’t ready to go deeper.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pavi Sharma's Guide to Going Home was interesting but didn't quite live up to my expectations. The pacing was kind of weird in places and the characters could have been better developed. However, the portrayal of the foster-care system seemed well-researched and did a good job avoiding many of the cliches seen in other works about the system.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and compelling story of a middle schooler who tries to use her own history of foster care trauma to help other foster kids. I liked Pavi and her foster brother a lot. While I appreciate that Pavi's poor but well-intentioned choices are kind of the point, I do wish that there had been more serious consequences assigned to the actual medical danger Pavi put multiple children into.

[Heather Jennings · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be best for grades 4-6. It is the story of a young foster care girl who is with a stable family but wants to help a younger girl about to be placed in a questionable environment. It is not overwhelmingly sentimental about the treatment of foster care but there are some elements that I question in terms of believability. This text does not make placement agencies or CPS look good!