The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown
by Elizabeth Laird
Intermediate, Middle School    MCB/Pan Macmillan    352 pp.
5/24    9781529075632    $18.99

Thirteen-year-old Charity Brown, youngest of four, is dealing with the lingering effects of polio and starting to question the beliefs and rules of her parents, who adhere to the precepts of a strict Christian sect. “We had to avoid places where the Devil might lurk, like cinemas, or those coffee bars with juke boxes that play wickedly sinful pop music.” The family’s plain, thrifty, and restrained domestic life changes drastically when the Browns come into an unexpected inheritance that includes a mansion and decide to set up a kind of hostel for the “weary and heavy-laden.” Set in postwar London, this narrative touches on antisemitism, racism, and the oppression of women but folds these issues deftly into a child-centered story of a spirited girl who feels inadequate, longs for a friend, is embarrassed by her parents’ behavior in public, and frets about how the idea of a loving God can be reconciled with the sorrows of the world. The tone here, warm and gently funny, matches the setting, as well-orchestrated scenes of family dinner disasters, a teenage brother with attitude, not having the right clothes, an adored auntie who is a bit “fast,” and a short-lived crush could have been plucked from a mid-twentieth-century children’s novel. A nuanced portrait of growing up outside the mainstream.

From the July/August 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.