Three Little Words

In a quiet but moving story about the different forms family can take, 16-year-old Sid has grown up happily with foster parents on an island off Canada’s west coast, an evocative setting that Harvey (Death Benefits) paints with care. Sid is an artistic loner, but his innate kindness is readily apparent: he’s the kind of teen who’s happy to create stories with Fariza, a newly arrived foster child recovering from a family trauma, and whip up éclairs for the annual island potluck. Sid’s idyllic summer takes a turn when a man shows up with the news that Sid’s bipolar biological mother has disappeared—along with a half-brother Sid didn’t know he had. Sid agrees to travel to Victoria, B.C., to meet his grandmother and search for 13-year-old Wain. Sid is a bit too good to be true, and he finds Wain without much incident. Harvey is more interested in Sid’s struggles to make headway with moody, aggressive Wain (who, to Sid’s surprise, is half black) and Sid’s unresolved feelings toward his mother, both of which come to realistically imperfect resolutions. Ages 12–up. (Oct.)