Aster’s Good, Right Things is an important book about kids dealing with seriously heavy issues that, in a perfect world, they should never have to deal with. But this is reality for some kids in our very imperfect world, and this book will make these kids feel less alone. It has real potential to provide a sense of hope as well.

Oh, Aster. What a lovable character you are. I felt for her right from the start. Aster feels bad—not just bad; fearful—about feeling happy. She’s 11 years old and living with an anxiety disorder, and though it isn’t specifically named in the book, it reads just like obsessive-compulsive disorder (she acts on compulsions—doing good, right things—to manage her anxiety about something bad happening).

The new friendships forged in the book are compelling and real. And can I just say, I love how casually Xavier smashes gender stereotypes, no big deal. Also, Aster’s dad is just the best.

Aster’s new friends remind us that everyone has things they struggle with, that we all have good days and bad days. These characters remind us that the reasons behind people’s “bad” behaviors can be complex and deep-rooted, but that we can and should set healthy boundaries for ourselves, even if the decision to do so is difficult.

CW: anxiety, OCD, depression, bullying, child neglect

This is a really lovely, gentle story about a girl called Aster, who doesn't feel that she fits in. Aster feels responsible for all the difficult things, like her mum leaving and her dad having to work so hard at his school. By doing a good, right thing every day, Aster believes that she can stop everything from falling apart. When Aster meets (the wonderfully perfect) Xavier, she starts to see things slightly differently and begins to accept herself and see that other people love her just as she is.

This is a beautiful story of how Aster copes and changes after her life changes drastically. I can see this story really resonating with middle graders who are dealing with some tough stuff of their own.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Eleven year old Aster feels as though she is the only student at her school who isn’t gifted. Every day, she sets out to do a good, right thing, with lots of rules governing if it is good and right and how good, right things should feel. She does these things to build her own safety net; her mother has left her, and she doesn’t want anyone else to leave her. So if she can just do enough good, right things, then she will be safe.

This novel is absolutely breathtaking. I even struggled to write a review, because it touched my heart so deeply I feared my effusive response would come across as insincere. But the truth is that this book is exceptional, and the world would be a better place if every single adult had to read it.


We speak approximately 7,000 words a day. Some may go over or under, but that’s the number Google gives us. Aster’s mom was not careful with her words. She spoke harsh, impatient words. She blamed her daughter for her choices. And her daughter is paying the price- the cost of which is too high for any eleven year old to handle.

Aster struggles with anxiety and possibly depression, and the way the story conveys this information is delicate and accurate. She second guesses and overthinks every decision, from big moments to if she should smile. She’s become painfully shy, unable to speak when others speak to her. She feels as though she is a ghost, a cloud, invisible.

Slowly, Aster begins to see herself not the way her mother saw her, but the way her loved ones see her. She wrestles with the ‘noise’, she struggles to do the best good, right thing, all while learning sometimes the good, right thing is to do a good, right thing for yourself.

The language, dialogue, and characterization of struggling children is all beautifully woven into a story that gives hope in a realistic light. We see Aster when she is feeling her worst, and we see her soar. We see the way she moves from one into the other, and we see her growing.

This story is just so beautiful. The themes are very grown up- anxiety and depression are no light topic. There are some really difficult circumstances discussed in this book, from foster care to hospitalization due to mental health. Yet Kate Gordon handles each topic with a delicate and deliberate touch that leaves the reader more empathetic, feeling seen, and just overall better. It’s vitally important to show readers, especially young readers, that feeling the way Aster, Xavier, or Indigo feels is nothing to be ashamed of.

This beautiful book is sure to touch the heart of anyone who reads it. It is absolutely worth the time, whether anyone in your home falls into the middle grade range or not. This is a novel for all ages, about a young girl struggling to find her place in the world.

Kate Gordon’s Aster’s Good, Right Things will be available November 1, 2020 from Riveted Press and Yellow Brick Books. Big thanks to them and to Net Galley for the opportunity to review this gem of a book!

I did not like this book as much as I hoped. If you'd like to read my full review, you can read it on my blog. https://www.leilabricket.com/2020/10/asters-good-right-things-book-review.html

This was a wonderfully tender novel for middle-grade readers. It may be a little young for my 8th graders, however, I feel it could be a valuable resource for opening up tough conversations with my other middle school colleagues. Aster herself feels like a real student I've know, her character is deep and vivid. The opportunities to relate character experiences to students' experiences are endless, opening doors for discussions of empathy, belonging, expression, and differing relationships.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author but it won’t be the last. Aster is a somewhat troubled little girl who doesn’t understand why her mother left. She talks about the noise in her head and thinks that if she doesn’t do good, right things every day, then the rest of her family- her dad and her aunt Noni - will leave her too.

The supporting cast are good too. There’s Aster’s dad who is a high school principal and understands exactly what Aster needs. There’s Xavier, a boy who lives next to Aster’s school, is homeschooled and who struggles with depression. Finally, there’s Indigo who is in care because her mother can’t look after her properly.

All of the characters are entirely believable. I like the way in which all of the children’s problems are described with such acceptance. No one tries to change them; the adults are just there to support them through the difficulties they are facing.

This is the kind of book where you wonder if anything is going to happen but whilst nothing dramatically changes, the ending is satisfying and conclusive. The story captivated me from the first line. If life hadn’t got in the way I could have read this in one sitting.

Eleven year-old Aster has been having a terrible time since her mother left. She thinks that doing good deeds every day will keep people in her life. She's also so quiet that many of her classmates have never heard her speak before. In fact, the only creature she interacts with on school grounds is a tamed rabbit. To her astonishment, this rabbit has an owner - Xavier, a boy who doesn't attend her school, and has some mental health issues of his own.

I really love hard-hitting middle grade novels, and this is definitely one of them. Aster's relationship with her mother, shown in flashbacks, was abysmal. No matter how hard the girl tried, she was unable to get the approval and love that she craved. Instead, a lot of terrible things were internalized.

I don't want to give the impression that this is an altogether depressing read, however. Aster's dad and aunt are both loving, stable figures in Aster's life, and her friendship with Xavier is very special as well.

All the stars for this quiet, important novel. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This may be the best book I've read in 2020 (and I don't say that lightly -- I'm VERY stingy with my 5-star reviews).

Aster is an incredible, loving character who is reeling after her mother decided she didn't want to be part of their family anymore. The way she describes their interactions when Aster was younger leads me to believe her mother may be bipolar, but that's never discussed. Instead, her dad and aunt are revered as the loving adults in her life who *stayed* (though they have struggles of their own).

As both a mother and a grown-up child who was often neglected by my parents, I vacillated between crying for my childhood self and vowing to do better for my own children. This book will stay with me for a long time!

This story is about a girl named aster she attends a school for gifted children, liked the setting of the story especially the characters, aster was for me the perfect protagonist and by that, I don't mean she is flawless but that is a character many people can relate to for example she has realistic emotion she thinks no one will love her and that she isn't especial because her mother left her and I think having flaws or insecurity are esencila for a character in summary this was a very well written book

Aster’s good, right things is a story about Aster, an eleven year old girl who attends a school for gifted kids. It is mostly set there, and other settings are her home and an ice cream shop. Even though the school seems a bit too much with their rules of behaving like this and not eating that, it was done in a realistic but playful way , which I thought worked well for the story, especially a middle grade one. The other settings are what you can expect from them, adding more details to the story to make it complete. At all those settings, the reader finds new characters, who all have their own struggles. For a middle grade book, it talks about those struggles a lot, though in a more child-friendly way; depression is like the big bad black dog, for example. Maybe I just didn’t expect it to be that sad, and that’s why because I couldn’t put it down. Besides the fact that it reads easy and fast, it talks about many struggles these characters face in a realistic way. It shows the message that everyone is fighting their own battles and that everyone does that in a different way. It tells that many do not know what is going on with someone, how their life is, how their emotions are, or their home situation. Aster herself has a mom who she believes doesn’t love her because she ran away and never came back. Her emotions about this are realistically written, and causing her wanting to do good things for only others, not herself. Her character arc that brings her towards realizing she can make herself happy as well, is just heart-warming to read about. She does help others meanwhile, making friends with many different people and supporting them, but overall this beautiful story is about learning to do good for yourself as well. It was exactly what I needed to read at the moment and I just had a great time reading it. It is just so happy even though it can be heavy, but it deals with those serious topics so nicely, I can’t help but just feel soft from the inside.