How to Build a Heart by Maria Padian

How to Build a Heart

by Maria Padian

A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of 2020 Family isn't something you're born into — it's something you build. One young woman’s journey to find her place in the world as the carefully separated strands of her life — family, money, school, and love — begin to overlap and tangle. All sixteen-year-old Izzy Crawford wants is to feel like she really belongs somewhere. Her father, a marine, died in Iraq six years ago, and Izzy’s moved to a new town nearly every year since, far from the help of her extended family in North Carolina and Puerto Rico. When Izzy’s hardworking mom moves their small family to Virginia, all her dreams start clicking into place. She likes her new school—even if Izzy is careful to keep her scholarship-student status hidden from her well-to-do classmates and her new athletic and popular boyfriend. And best of all: Izzy’s family has been selected by Habitat for Humanity to build and move into a brand-new house. Izzy is this close to the community and permanence she’s been searching for, until all the secret pieces of her life begin to collide.How to Build a Heart is the story of Izzy’s journey to find her place in the world and her discovery that the choices we make and the people we love ultimately define us and bring us home.

Reviewed by Sam@WLABB on

5 of 5 stars

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Rating: 4.5 Stars

Izzy had always felt caught between two worlds. Biracial, but white-passing, she passed her days in her private school, and the rest of her time in her trailer park home. When Aubrey, the new transfer student, befriended Izzy, she had the opportunity to mingle among the town's wealthier citizens, but how long would Izzy be able to hide who she was from her new friends?

This was a story of friendship, family, first love, identity, and grief, and Izzy was at the center of it all. Right when she had started to settle into her new life in Virginia, her family was selected to receive a home via Habitat for Humanity, AND she fell for her best friend's crush. Obviously, both things resulted in lots of stress and complications in her life, because she was trying to hide so much from both her best friend and her crush.

It was quite interesting watching Izzy attempt to navigate the aforementioned situation, however what I really enjoyed was the exploration of her identity. With the loss of her father, she was missing a very vital piece of who she was, while she was also isolated from her father's side of the family. This left her with many questions, and I was happy, when Izzy sought those answers by reconnecting with her father's kin. She learned a lot from the experience, and it brought an important part of her past into her present.

All the characters in this book were stellar, and Padian did fantastic job shaping them. They were multifaceted and interesting, and real. I had a lot of love for Sam and Aubrey, but I absolutely adored Mami. This woman was a superhero. The way she sacrificed for her children, and the determination it took for her to keep going in the face of so many difficult circumstances, all on her own, was nothing short of amazing.

The author took on some BIG issues in this book, but she did so in an honest and sensitive way. I appreciated her approach, and it never felt heavy handed to me. I appreciated the different sides she approached each topic from, and liked the way she wove it all into the story.

Overall: A wonderful and touching story of self discovery, that was filled with lots of hope and love.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 16 November, 2019: Finished reading
  • 16 November, 2019: Reviewed