All the Children Are Home

A Novel

By: Patry Francis

Narrated by: Kimberly Woods, Nora Hunter, Mia Barron, Patrick Zeller

Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

A sweeping saga in the vein of Ask Again, Yes following a foster family through almost a decade of dazzling triumph and wrenching heartbreak - from the author of The Orphans at Race Point.

Set in the late 1950s through 1960s in a small town in Massachusetts, All the Children Are Home follows the Moscatelli family - Dahlia and Louie, foster parents, and their long-term foster children Jimmy, Zaidie, and Jon - and the irrevocable changes in their lives when a six-year-old indigenous girl, Agnes, comes to live with them.

When Dahlia decided to become a foster mother, she had a few caveats: no howling newborns, no delinquents, and above all, no girls. A harrowing incident years before left her a virtual prisoner in her own home, forever wary of the heartbreak and limitation of a girl’s life.

Eleven years after they began fostering, Dahlia and Louie consider their family complete, but when the social worker begs them to take a young girl who has been horrifically abused and neglected, they can’t say no.

Six-year-old Agnes Juniper arrives with no knowledge of her Native American heritage or herself beyond a box of trinkets given to her by her mother and dreamlike memories of her sister. As the years pass and outside forces threaten to tear them apart, the children, now young adults, must find the courage and resilience to save themselves and each other. Heartfelt and enthralling, All the Children Are Home is a moving testament to the enduring power of love in the face of devastating loss.

©2021 Patry Francis (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Great Potential, but the Ending Fell Flat

The story had so many great plot lines that were all leading to great endings, but it left them all hanging.

Frustrating

This book came up as a recommendation due to other books I've listened to. I finished the book, but reluctantly. It was hard to get through. The story line was hard to follow and almost annoying at times. If it can go wrong, it did.

This was a crazy household but full of love

The readers had lovely voices to listen to. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters in this book.

I didn't want it to end!

It has been a long time since I've read a book that I didn't want to end. All the Children Are Home was such a great book, from the very first page to the last. The characters and their relationships were well developed and each one got equal time. There were happy parts and sad parts, but the love of these foster parents, even given their own issues and trauma, was steadfast. There is always room for one more in this life.

All the Children are home

I was engrossed in
the lives of these children and the couple who took them in to become a family who loved each other like true siblings and parents. And I hated when a biological parent appeared one day to take back his young son. This shattered their sense of safety. The rest of the book is about each member of the family healing and overcoming fears of their early life. In this way, they became a true family. I was deeply touched by this book, about how deeply humans bond, and how they suffer and are harmed when they are involuntarily separated. it ended without resolving how the little brother was doing. Some of the children wrote to him every day for years, but never heard back. His sisters planned to go across country to visit him when they grew up. I guess that is the way we have to accept that we don’t always resolve even very big unknowns.

Mostly sad story

It was dark and slow paced. Not a bad story but it was hard to keep focused on sometimes and hard to get through

Good story but too many unfinished pieces

This had so many things that I look for and appreciate in a good book - sympathetic, interesting characters, a compelling narrative, and realistic story. But the author left soooo many things unresolved that it was frustrating. It left me feeling disappointed. Narration was good.

Very much enjoyed

Great narration. I loved the different voices and perspectives. I was captured by the story. I wish some of the loose ends would have been tied. A lot of unfinished story lines.

A 3.5 Rating

Not as good as I had hoped… kept thinking the story would pick up. Sadly, that never happened.

Maybe I should have read the book!

I’m a retired social worker and look for novels about families who adopt or foster care. I listened on Audible, but I should have read it. The story jumped from the past to the future, and the voices were were not distinct. I couldn’t keep up with the characters. We’re there two Jimmy’s? I went to a previous chapters to try to make sense. I stopped reading two hours before the end because I was lost and confused. Oh, well, things happen! Right?