The In-Between

by Katie Van Heidrich

Overview

For fans of Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle and Life in Motion by Misty Copeland, this middle grade memoir in verse with “stellar writing [and] perfect pacing” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) chronicles a young girl and her family who must start over after losing their home.

In the early 2000s, thirteen-year-old Katie Van Heidrich has moved more times that she can count, for as long as she can remember. There were the slow moves where you see the whole thing coming. There were the fast ones where you grab what you can in seconds. When Katie and her family come back from an out-of-town funeral, they discover their landlord has unceremoniously evicted them, forcing them to pack lightly and move quickly.

They make their way to an Extended Stay America Motel, with Katie’s mother promising it’s temporary. Within the four walls of their new home, Katie and her siblings, Josh and Haley, try to live a normal life—all while wondering if things would be easier living with their father. Lyrical and forthcoming, Katie navigates the complexities that come with living in-between: in between homes, parents, and childhood and young adulthood, all while remaining hopeful for the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665920131
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	01/30/2024
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	662,933
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	9 - 13 Years

About the Author

An Atlanta native, Katie Van Heidrich graduated from Brown University with a BA in Africana studies and religious studies. Upon graduation, she taught fifth grade reading and social studies at a charter school in Charlotte, North Carolina, through Teach for America. Katie relocated to San Francisco, California, in 2015 and continued to teach and coach middle school social studies. Working with underserved children from diverse backgrounds, she is tasked with empowering students to reimagine the world we live in while affirming their place in it. In her daily teaching, Katie aims to help children realize their abilities to advance change. In her free time, Katie is an avid reader and self-proclaimed picture book enthusiast. She and her husband are the parents of two young sons.

Read an Excerpt

1. Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart
With each move,

I sort and pack,

pack and sort.

Everything has its place,

its compartment,

books and

pictures and

feelings, too

and

with each move,

there are fewer boxes to carry.

I’m only thirteen

but I’ve done a lot of living and moving,

finding that all things

eventually fall apart,

in time,

no matter how well packed.

Editorial Reviews

"The In-Between is a tribute to resilience in the face of adversity. Filled with compassion and tenderness, this memoir in verse will resonate with anyone who has ever felt stuck in between parents, in between homes, or in between childhood and adulthood."

Megan E. Freeman

11/21/2022

This clear-eyed verse memoir by debut author Van Heidrich follows the “in-between time” during which she lived in a motel with her single mother and younger siblings in the early 2000s. After attending her grandfather’s funeral in East St. Louis over winter break, 13-year-old Van Heidrich and her family arrive home in Atlanta to discover they’ve been evicted from their apartment, forcing them to move into a motel. Once winter break ends, Van Heidrich and her siblings return to school, where they try pretending that everything is normal, even though “going back to school/ from this rather abnormal place/ feels apocalyptic.” Friendship and romantic conflicts, and her father’s recent whirlwind marriage to a woman Van Heidrich barely knows, incite further emotional turmoil. As Van Heidrich shuffles between school, her father’s sterile new house in the suburbs, and the cramped motel room that she currently calls home, she confronts questions of identity and navigates anxiety regarding an uncertain future. With sincerity and care, Van Heidrich skillfully depicts the complexities of housing insecurity, financial precarity, and adolescent growing pains via lyrical text in this unflinching yet hopeful read. Ages 9–13. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Van Heidrich's work is ideal for readers who enjoy real-world stories that read like fiction and don’t shy away from struggle."

Booklist

★ 2022-10-26
In a stunning debut, Van Heidrich recounts living in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, with her mother and two younger siblings.

Their landlord promised to take care of things while they were in East St. Louis attending her grandfather’s funeral. Instead, 13-year-old Katie and her family return to no electricity, a tank full of dead fish, and their dog locked in her crate, whimpering, and covered in her own waste. They must move again—and quickly. As the family settles into a single hotel room, school provides relief and continuity but also a source of worries: Will anyone realize she’s now living outside the district? Will her friends discover the truth? Biweekly visits with her father only further Katie’s sense of being in an in-between place, heightened by questions of identity: Her mother is Black; her father is White, and her stepmother, whose English is limited, is from Thailand. As her mother bounced between jobs and states in search of new opportunities, Katie strived to support her, suppressing her own emotions. But her mother’s avoidance of the reality that she cannot provide for her children makes it increasingly difficult for Katie to remain silent about her feelings. Complex character development will engage readers, and vivid descriptions of the physical landscape bring the text to life. Van Heidrich masterfully describes her childhood emotions as well her mother’s confusing choices and mental health struggles with compassion and nuance.

Stellar writing, perfect pacing, and a sophisticated treatment of universal themes make this a must-read. (Verse memoir. 9-13)

Kirkus Reviews