Sharon Creech

Fans of Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech's Ruby Holler will love her latest tween novel about finding family when you least expect it. When a young couple finds a boy asleep on their porch, their lives take a surprising turn. Unable to speak, the boy Jacob can't explain his history. All John and Marta know is that they have been chosen to care for him. And, as their connection and friendship with Jacob grow, they embrace his exuberant spirit and talents. The three of them blossom into an unlikely family and begin to see the world in brand-new ways. The Boy on the Porch is a singular story about opening your heart and discovering home in unexpected places.

The Boy on the Porch

Macy Johnson

This was the MOST wholesome read. I only took off a star because the ending... the ending!! It was exactly what I wanted but it ended right when I wanted answers. I get why it ended. I just wish there was more. Like, c'mon!! You know I want to know about Jacob!!!

Amanda Kordeliski

The only reason it merits even one star is because I did manage to finish. Out of the 900+ students at my school, I cannot come up with a single one who would like this book. Yet another book written for adults disguised as a book for kids.

I don't even know what genre to put this in...realistic fiction? Absolutely nothing realistic about it.

Robin M Cabana

I'd give this book 3.5. stars. This was a very sweet story about a couple who find a mysterious boy on their door step. And I was very touched by how the boy changes this family, especially in the final chapters. I do wonder if kids would like this story - it seems a bit slow and it's told from the perspective of the adults. But I did find the mystery of it interesting and it was a very quick little read. 


I received an advanced reading copy of this book.

Bec Taylor

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

This slim book is a treasure, a realistic story about loss and finding family where you least expect it that is as magical as any fairy tale. It's a bittersweet realization as you are reading about Jacob and the young couple Marta and John who found him sleeping on their porch in a rocking chair with a note in his pocket, that there is no certainty in their futures together. The niggling dread that surrounds their newly born family, the trust built carefully around nurturing this silent, kind, artistic boy, never leaves the page and yet you read on hoping against hope that they will be allowed to be together. Those moments stolen from dread are both luminous--the boy painting a red creek on the barn wall, riding the cow across the pasture, learning his first chords on the guitar, carefully placing baby squirrels back into a felled tree--and riveting as both Marta and John understand that the longer Jacob is with them, the more their hearts tell them that they must investigate his story, that they must be unselfish and do the right thing for their boy which means finding his parents. As much as there is room for being selfish and loving this child who was abandoned with the barest of promises that his parents would return some day, Marta and John's inherent decency pulses through the story, one sunny afternoon playing ladder rung rhythms, one jacket traded for a guitar, one beagle cuddled on a bed, one belt traded for a bag of jelly beans, one paintbox emptied on every scrap of paper in the house. Creech creates the best kind of magic here, fleeting as it is, and in the midst of heartbreak helps Marta and John discover their own path to creating a family for children who need one, for as long as they need one.

A young couple wakes up to find a strange boy asleep on their porch. At first they don't expect him to stay, but stay he does, and as the couple's connection to him grows, the three of them blossom into an unlikely family. But where has he come from and to whom does he belong? 'A page-turner for a reader of any age.' Publisher's Weekly

The Boy on the Porch

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