Brooks, Martha. Being with Henry. Douglas & McIntyre, 1999. ISBN 978-0888993779 176 pp. $

****

Martha Brooks is still one of my favorite YA authors. Being with Henry is the story of a teenage boy, Laker, who doesn’t know his real Dad. His mom kicks him out of the house when he gets in a fight with his new stepdad. Laker lives on a the streets for awhile until he is taken in by an elderly man, Henry. The two form an unusual friendship, helping each other with all kinds of things. Laker struggles to fit in with the rest of Henry’s family: his middle-aged daughter, Vera, and her daughter, Charlene. Henry, Vera, and Charlene are grieving the loss of Henry’s wife. Laker is grieving the rejection of his Mother and the loss of the father he never knew. Even with the resentments and sadness they are all feeling, they manage to help one another through these hard times.

If you read only one Martha Brooks novel in your entire life, it should be True Confessions of a Heartless Girl. That’s her best one ever!