The book is decent. I can see how it's an excellent middle grade book. As an adult reader it seemed a little....not interesteing. Still the plot and character development are well done. ( )

Woodson is one of the best (maybe the best) writers of fiction for young people. She's definitely one of my favorite authors. But I struggled to get into this book. Beautifully written, yes. Important topics and themes, yes. But it felt like a book written primarily to teach lessons, not tell a story.

Most of this book consists of a group of fifth graders sitting in a room talking. Narrator Haley is sitting in her room reflecting on the past year. Sometimes we are with her as a twelve-year-old looking back, and sometimes we are with her as an eleven-year-old living through the school year. She has recorded a lot of the dialogue in the ARTT (A Room To Talk) and is playing it back, but she also recounts a lot of dialogue that wasn't recorded. We also flashback sometimes to things that happened to her outside of school. All this moving around in time was confusing for me, especially because I wasn't able to read this in one sitting.

This book feels like a reaction to current events. In a lesser writer's hands it would be plain terrible. Woodson being Woodson crafts some brilliant sentences and images. She also puts a lot of wisdom into the mouths of fifth graders. I think this a book young people should read and discuss, but probably more out of duty than pleasure. I would recommend it to teachers and parents who are looking for a way to start a conversation around immigration, racism, bullying, and grief. The message of the book is right there in the title -- we must be safe harbors for each other in troubled times. ( )

Starred reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and SLJ.

Starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, SLJ

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson addresses many issues in the news today, that could be affecting youth. If anything it plays a little too on-the-nose, like if 1991 vibes were personified and then abandoned, and left to figure things out with no guidance. This isn't to say it's not good, it is good. It's "Breakfast Club" with POC and a realistic timeline of events.
Readers of all ages will enjoy the comraderie and dialogue, there are references that readers of literature will get that some younger readers won't (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, others). It directly deals with the issues through dialogue of at-risk youth regularly left in a room together for an hour with no supervision. Most of this book happens in between the ears, it's not an action story, but it combines that with easy reading to make an excellent jump-off point for readers who don't already explore the life of the mind. I would heavily recommend this book for readers who don't think any books are about them, readers who want material more mature than their current reading level, and readers who want a good coming-of-age story or friends drama story.