***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: a list of cages

Thanks to Disney for sending a copy of A List of Cages and for providing a prize pack to giveaway! Here's more about the book and the promotion:

Title: A List of Cages
Author: Robin Roe
Series: n/a
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: January 10, 2017
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he’s got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn’t easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can’t complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian—the foster brother he hasn’t seen in five years.

Adam is ecstatic to be reunited. At first, Julian seems like the boy he once knew. He’s still kindhearted. He still writes stories and loves picture books meant for little kids. But as they spend more time together, Adam realizes that Julian is keeping secrets, like where he hides during the middle of the day, and what’s really going on inside his house. Adam is determined to help him, but his involvement could cost both boys their lives…

First-time novelist Robin Roe relied on life experience when writing this exquisite, gripping story featuring two lionhearted characters.

A List of Cages was heartbreaking and emotional and an all-around lovely book. One that I think would do everyone a bit of good to read in these dark times. It's about friendship and kindness and overcoming adversity, and it's oh-so-very touching.

And one of the quotes from the story -- "Hate ricochets, but kindness does too." -- really got me thinking about the small kindnesses we do for each other, the ones that don't take much from us but can mean the world to someone else. Especially when said kindness comes at a time when the recipient could really use it.

I remember when I was around four or five, and my parents had taken us to Dairy Queen to get sundaes. There was a little girl in the restaurant who was begging her mother for one, too, but her mother had said no. My dad, being the tender-hearted soul he is, got up without saying a word and bought that little girl a sundae of her own, despite that we didn't have a lot of money and it was a rare treat for our family as it was. The mother thanked my dad and we all went about our business. But I remember how happy that little girl was, and how inspired I was by my dad's actions. I mean, sure, nowadays the mother probably would have admonished my father for daring to undermine her authority, but things were different then and it was just a kind gesture.

And I know that kindness like that can be paid forward ten-fold. When I was just a bit older, I remember a customer in line in front of us at the supermarket offering to pay for our family's groceries, and it came at a time when we needed it most. I've always thought -- though there are times I forget -- that the more kindness you put out into the world, the more kindness finds you.

It's so easy to tell each other to "be the change" or "do unto others", but it's so much harder to demonstrate this through our actions. And yet, somehow, I must have been doing that all this time because my own daughter is the picture of kindness.

When a girl with Downs Syndrome started attending Katie's daycare, Katie befriended her and treated her the way she would any other child. And the thing is, I don't think Katie saw the girl as any different. She's never been the kind of kid who pointed out others' differences, but even her daycare teacher noted how sweet it was that when other children shied away from Katie's new friend, Katie went out of her way to be a good friend to this girl. In this way, Katie is my hope for the future.

About the author:

Robin Roe has a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a master's from Harvard. She counseled adolescents in Boston before she moved to Dallas, Texas, to run a mentoring program for at-risk teens. This is her first novel.

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