Parents' Guide to I Have Lost My Way

This is a complex, beautiful story about three teens who meet and end up transforming one another's lives one fateful day in New York City. It's difficult to write effective narratives that take place all in one day or night, but author Gayle Forman already accomplished that in the first part of Just One Day. In I Have Lost My Way, she expands on the idea of intense relationship-building, life-changing days with this unforgettable chronicle of how Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel, all of whom are bearing considerable burdens, crash into one another and go from total strangers to friends who share the deepest of secrets. Despite their different backgrounds, racial/ethnic identities, and circumstances, the three teens each have serious father issues: Freya's dad moved back to Ethiopia and abandoned the family; Harun's is loving, but he's a devout Muslim who wouldn't understand his son's sexual orientation; and Nathaniel's brought him up more as his best friend than as a son.

Forman handles the diversity with thoughtfulness and a sense of well-researched authenticity (the author is a Jewish New Yorker and has an adopted Ethiopian daughter). The representation in I Have Lost My Way goes way beyond just mentioning a last name or an ethnicity/faith. These three characters are all well-rounded, and their family experiences are thoroughly explored. Thank goodness for the humor, like the fun park softball sequence, to break up the more serious and downright heartbreaking moments. The attraction and developing romance between Freya and Nathaniel is fast without devolving into stereotypical "instant love." Although this book is a standalone, readers will finish the final scene hoping for more from these characters who've burrowed their way into hearts and minds.