The How & the Why

De: Cynthia Hand

Narrado por: Phoebe Strole, Erin Spencer

The How & the Why has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Awesome for Young and Old

The book has soul; it left me feeling pensive. The two female narrators are Yin and Yang- the syrupy sweet voice of the adopted teen is perfectly balanced with the raspy, cool, and sometimes wistful voice of the mom who gave her up for adoption. The book left me wanting to start writing again, even if it is just for myself. I related to the parents in this novel and it reminded me of the Elizabeth Stone quote, "Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." Parenthood can be a rollercoaster with more lows than highs, more tears than smiles, and it requires enormous sacrifice. There are vastly different ways parents sacrifice for their children, but The How and the Why teaches us the greater the love, the greater the sacrifices you are willing to make. It also highlights how much we are strengthened and often transformed when we are on the receiving end of someone else's love and sacrifice.

meh

it wasn't what I thought. kinda confused me the first couple chapters not gonna lie

The two narrators sounded the same

Cassandra’s mom, who needs a new heart, requests that Cass search for her birth mom. Her dad is less enthusiastic. Eighteen years ago S, a pregnant teen writes letters to her baby, X. Chapters alternate between Cass’s POV and S’s letters.

THE HOW & THE WHY is a rollercoaster of emotion that addresses adoption, race, class, family and illness. Cassandra, a high school senior, deals with college applications, costarring in her high school musical, a dying mother and searching for her birth mother with the help of Nyla, her best friend and Bastain, the new kid in school and possible love interest.

I love Cynthia Hand’s writing style and character building. Cass has her share of faults, could be more assertive and on one occasion makes a racist statement to Nyla. She’s also loving, considerate and has a strong moral compass.


THE HOW & THE WHY ended with the type exclamation point I love.

Great story!

I listened to the whole thing and enjoyed it a lot. Parts of it were slightly slow but I’m glad I finished it

it's ok

it was pretty slow but interesting as it went along, the ending is a cliff hanger though.