REVIEW: Growing Home by Beth Ferry

JayneB Reviews / Book Reviewsanimals / children’s book / cozy fantasy / found family / friendship / MagicNo Comments

An unlikely team of talkative plants, a curious spider, and a grumpy goldfish use their newfound magical abilities to defend their family from a greedy human in this charming middle grade novel from New York Times bestselling author Beth Ferry, with illustrations from the award-winning Fan brothers.

Ivy is the beloved houseplant of young Jillian Tupper of Number 3 Ramshorn Drive, much to the constant dismay of Toasty the goldfish, who is technically the family pet—swimming in his special place of honor, the antique octagonal fish tank—and should be the most loved. It seems that’s how the cookie (or cheese puffs, in Toasty’s case) crumbles in the curious Tupper household, but soon a sequence of thrilling and magical events challenges that way of life forever.

First, there’s the arrival of Arthur, a knowledgeable spider with a broken leg and a curious mind, hidden in an old typewriter. Then Jillian throws everyone for a loop when she brings home dear, sweet Ollie, a school houseplant who just wants to be friends and sing. When Toasty splashes the plants with his tank water out of frustration, the friends learn that they can do magical things—like lift heavy objects and turn things invisible!

It turns out Toasty’s fish tank isn’t just for fish; it was made by a curious inventor who gave it special powers that, in the wrong hands, could disrupt everything forever. And a curious man with purple shoes just so happens to want that tank at any cost. Can Ivy, Toasty, Arthur, and Ollie grow to be friends in time to work together to save their beloved Tupper family from utter ruin?

Dear Ms. Ferry, 

What an adorable cover. What a lovely story. Parts of it don’t make a lot of sense but it’s one of these stories that I just didn’t care, because I was enjoying it so much.

I agree about the 6-9 year age rating that I’ve seen for it. Back in the day when I was that old, I would have loved to have heard it read aloud in class. It doesn’t talk down to its readers, introduces a lot of fun words in a positive way with explanations given in an “isn’t this a neat word that you now know?” way. Except segue – I don’t know why segue wasn’t explained. 

The magic is kind of explained but sort of not. I’m not sure younger children would be able to follow this but then maybe they would not care too much and just accept it. But this part needed more work in my opinion. The illustrations, on the other hand, are delightful.

The vibe for the story is definitely a cozy and found family one. But also, yay, that characters learn, grow, and are allowed to have their emotionally needy moments, too. We all have those. Characters discover that thinking about how others feel is a good thing and you can end up bonding with someone you didn’t think could or would be your friend. To have friends means you must be a friend though so be careful to be willing to be a friend which is a lesson we all need to pay attention to. B 

~Jayne

NOTE – the release date is May 27th

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