Loris Opens Up His Heart by Dagmara Sitek
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a really good book about a foster family gaining a new family member. A pair of foster siblings, at the beginning, are trying to get ready for a race that will help their foster sister who has heart issues. When they came home from passing out flyers, their foster mom introduced them to a new foster sibling, Loris. Loris is mysterious and doesn’t speak to anyone. The story talks about how he is always scared and that stems from his stepfather. He struggles with being shy, fear, anger, and confusion about why his parents had to leave him. However, he helps his siblings by standing up to a bully that was bothering them. His siblings are grateful and try to help him in return by teaching him that there are positive things that he could look toward instead of always being scared and angry. They start to build a bond that helps Loris break out of his shell and ends up being able to help his sick sister by being the hero of the race. This book seemed to address some issues that children may have, especially foster children. There was discussion of normalizing some of the negative feelings these children might have, but then also talking about the positive aspects that can occur too. I think the book does a good job of showing that a foster care situation doesn’t always have to be scary or negative.

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