What I Carry

Published in 2020, Jennifer Longo’s What I Carry is a young adult, coming-of-age, realistic fiction novel. As Muiriel approaches her 18th birthday and the prospect of aging out of the foster care system, she carries around the emotional weight of her experiences. She is determined not to get too close to anyone, but her world begins to shift when she moves to an island in the Puget Sound and forms unexpected connections with the people around her. The novel won the 2021 Washington State Book Award for Young Adult Literature and explores themes of healing, nature, and resilience.

Citations in this study guide refer to the e-book edition released by Random House in 2020.

Content Warning: The source material contains depictions of deaths of parents, substance abuse, child abuse, attempted sexual abuse, and racism.

Plot Summary

Muiriel has spent her entire life in the foster care system. She believes that the only way that she will survive when she ages out of the system in a year is if she is completely independent, so she avoids getting close to people and doesn’t want to be adopted. On the day after her 17th birthday, her social worker, Joellen, takes her to her last foster home, which is on an island in the Puget Sound.