By Sandra Levins
A boy narrates what happens after his parents divorce and his mom remarries: a new stepdad, a new house, two stepsisters, and a growing worry that there's no room left for him.
First his parents got divorced, and he and his little brother started going back and forth, some days at Mom's, some days at Dad's. He got used to that. Then Mom married again, and the whole thing shifted a second time: a new husband, a new house, two stepsisters. He watches his mom braid the stepsisters' hair and read them stories, and he starts to feel like there's no room left for him. So he acts up, at home and at school. It takes his mom really asking, and really listening, before the two of them find small ways to make sure he still knows he's hers. It's a Magination Press book, so it ends with a Note to Parents that walks a grown-up through the feelings underneath.
This is the workhorse of the shelf, the one that actually covers the whole machinery of a family blending: divorce, two houses, joint custody, a mom remarrying, brand-new stepsiblings under one roof. And it's told from inside the boy, not from a calm narrator watching from above, so you understand why he's jealous and why he acts up. A child in some version of this may recognize a boy who feels what they feel and still comes out okay, with a mom who noticed. The note at the back makes it as much a tool for you as a story for them.