SOLVED. Children’s book about a girl on a boat watching a “perfect” family who falls asleep and wakes up finding herself as part of their family. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Erica]

A young girl from a broken/untraditional family is on a boat and watches a seemingly perfect family nearby. She is envious of the family and sour toward the adult with her (her grandmother, I think?). She falls asleep and when she wakes up, finds that she has somehow become part of that family. They get off the boat together and the girl enjoys all of the fulfilled fantasies she’s had about traditional families. The parents are loving and patient, the children never fight with one another. Slowly, things start to unravel somehow. The girl and the other siblings are playing in a nearby graveyard one day when the girl discovers that her experience with the perfect family is actually the narrative of the ghost of an author who was buried there. The ghost explains that she can’t keep writing the perfect story because there’s no point to it, and shows the girl why the negative and difficult parts of life are the ones filled with the most meaning. The girl then somehow spends an afternoon with the family in reality and finds that the kids are always fighting and whining, the parents are sometimes irritated, and their reality is messy. The girl misses her own family and wakes up back on the boat with a new appreciation for them.

[Rainbowheart]

Awake and Dreaming

[Erica]

Yesss that’s the one! Thank you!!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Erica. I removed the spoiler from the header and added a spoiler alert.

[Rainbowheart]

Welcome, glad to help out!