Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Book Summary and Reviews of What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

What I Carry

by Jennifer Longo

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Jan 2020, 336 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

For readers of Robin Benway's Far from the Tree, a powerful and heartwarming look at a teen girl about to age out of the foster care system.

Growing up in foster care, Muir has lived in many houses. And if she's learned one thing, it is to Pack. Light. Carry only what fits in a suitcase.
Toothbrush? Yes.
Socks? Yes.
Emotional attachment to friends? foster families? a boyfriend? Nope!
There's no room for any additional baggage.

Muir has just one year left before she ages out of the system. One year before she's free. One year to avoid anything--or anyone--that could get in her way.

Then she meets Francine. And Kira. And Sean.
And everything changes.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"The power of relationship—both those experienced and those denied—is expertly explored throughout this novel with nuance and humanity...An exceptional addition to the coming-of-age canon." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Longo, a foster and adoptive parent, wrote the book for her adopted daughter, who wanted a "hopeful, happy" tale; she provides it—and the book, well-written and heartfelt, is a pleasure." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A deeply touching story about survival, hope, and love and an important addition to the literature of foster care. Muiriel's journey will transfix readers from the first to the last page." - Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces

"What I Carry is not only a necessary book—it's a charming, honest, and hopeful one. This is a story you'll fall for." - Deb Caletti, National Book Award Finalist, and author of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book, A Heart in a Body in the World

"You will carry this book in your heart for a long, long time." - Jeff Zentner, William C. Morris Award winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days

"Funny, painful, fresh, and real, Jennifer Longo's What I Carry will break your heart and put it back together again." - Martha Brokenbrough, author of Kirkus Prize Finalist The Game of Love and Death

This information about What I Carry was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Retired educator

A Perfect read
I downloaded this book after my daughter suggested it. I could not put it down.
While teaching I had more than a few foster kids in my class. We just don’t have any idea what they live through.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Jennifer Longo Author Biography

Jennifer Longo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Acting from San Francisco State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing For Theatre from Humboldt State University. She is a two-time Irene Ryan Best Actor Award recipient and a Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Best Full Length Script honoree for her play, Frozen. After years of acting, playwriting, working as a literary assistant at San Francisco's Magic Theatre and an elementary school librarian, Jennifer told the occasional story at San Francisco's Porch Light Storytelling Series and decided at last to face her fear of prose and actually write some. Her debut novel, Six Feet Over It (Random House Books 2014) received starred reviews from Kirkus and The Bulletin, was selected as a 2015 Washington State Book ...

... Full Biography
Link to Jennifer Longo's Website

Other books by Jennifer Longo at BookBrowse
  • Six Feet Over It jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more YA literary fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Our Evenings
    Our Evenings
    by Alan Hollinghurst
    Alan Hollinghurst's novel Our Evenings is the fictional autobiography of Dave Win, a British ...
  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.