Tiny Infinities

Written by J.H. Diehl

Narrated by Laura Knight Keating

What's Alice going to do?

When twelve-year-old Alice’s dad moves out, leaving her with her troubled mother, Alice does the only thing that feels right: She retreats to her family’s old Renaissance fair tent in the backyard, determined to live there until her dad comes home. In an attempt
to keep at least one part of her summer from changing, Alice focuses on her quest to get her name on her swim team’s record board. But summers contain multitudes, and soon Alice meets an odd new friend, Harriet, whose obsession with the
school’s science fair is equal only to her conviction that Alice’s best stroke is backstroke, not freestyle. Most unexpected of all is an unusual babysitting charge, Piper, who is mostly deaf and entirely mute—until Alice hears her speak a word.

Funny and devastatingly honest, this sharply observed depiction of family, friendship, and Alice’s determination to prove herself—as a babysitter, as a friend, as a daughter, as a person—rings loud and true.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9781705092880

Reviews for Tiny Infinities

[mizpurplest · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was bittersweet but felt so real to me. Alice's emotional upheaval and anger mixed with confusion and her desire to put things back to the way they were before the world broke really resonated with me, and I was so glad that she found a way to find herself again in the end. I loved the interwoven plots and the characters, and the complexity of the interactions between them all. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys coming of age adolescent books, but also to anyone who has lived through the upheaval of divorce at a young age.

[kimpiddington · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Realistic narrator navigates the unraveling of her parents marriage while striving to attain some goals of her own.

[brandilynne-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book through a giveaway. I’m surprised I didn’t like this one as much as I thought I would. It’s a good glimpse into the family dynamic when the child becomes the parent, but there wasn’t really a solid resolution to it. I enjoyed the sections having to do with Piper, and how her and Alice start to bond. The thing that dropped it to a 3 stars was the long sections on swimming. I understand it was a huge part of the main character’s life, but this story could have been so much more if the relationships in it were more developed. I’m sad this one didn’t work for me.

[mckait · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a sweet story of a young girl named Alice. She was a passionate swimmer and the oldest child in her family. After a major car accident kept her mother first hospitalized and then bedridden ( far longer than it should have) Alice picked up her mom's share of family duties and simply made it work. Alice was good with younger children and often worked with them at swim meets. Life was going on in a fairly steady manner when the bottom really fell out. Her father moved away. Thus began the summer of Alices rebellion, and of her learning how to live for herself. After a rocky start and huge misunderstanding when she met the new neighbors, they had much to do with Alice finally recognizing her own value in the world. She made a friend named Harriet, another called Owen and a summer that began disastrously with her father moving out, filled with unexpected incidents, some good times and one near miracle This is a nice story, with nice characters and a bit of a surprise at the end...

[susan.macura · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I simply loved this book. Alice at 12 years old is facing some major hurdles in her life. Her mother, after a car accident, has become a recluse in her bedroom. This ultimately resulted in Alice's father moving out of the house and the further splitting of her family when her two younger brothers go to live with their aunt for the summer vacation. However, Alice decides to stay home, but she will not live in the house until her father comes to his senses and moves back. Instead she erects and moves into a tent in the backyard. This is not the only challenge Alice encounters. She has new neighbors that include a cute toddler, an older sister who has some type of speech or learning issue and an adorable brother a few years older than Alice - true "crush" material. Not only does Alice help out with the younger two children, she also hears the youngster with the speech issues say a word, although no one really believes this is possible. Alice has to devise a way to show everyone that Piper did speak. Fortunately, she has help from her "crush" and her new swim team friend, who not only helps solve this mystery, but convinces Alice to stop trying to swim freestyle and switch to backstroke, leading to much more success! This is a book about change, opening oneself up to new people and experiences, and being able to take advice from others. These are issues every teen has to cope with, so it is extremely relevant to young people. Furthermore, there is a great deal of fascinating information on fireflies! This is a magical, wonderfully written tale with extremely likable characters. What a great debut!

[wearylibrarian · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I generally love YA books but I must say, it took a lot of effort to get through this one. A lot of the book involves swimming, which I found very boring. I am not a swimmer. Maybe I would have enjoyed the book more if I swam in competition. As is, it took away from the rest of the book for me.

[janeslist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of the LibraryThing EarlyReviewers program. As a regular reader of YA, I would say this aims at the younger end of the spectrum. Although it's not the type of book I typically read, I think it did a good job. Alice (12) is trying to a) do her best at competing in swimming, her favorite thing, and b) hold her life together while her parents negotiate splitting up. I liked how the world of adults was not entirely understandable to her - for example, when her dad tries to explain that adults don't just stay together for the kids, and that the relationship hadn't been going well for a while, I could see that there was a lot he wasn't saying, and I could see her not getting it. But that makes sense.I liked that the drama in the book was based on her relationship with her parents and friends, but there wasn't mean-girl drama or overblown romance. She has a crush on a boy, but is mildly relieved when he turns out to have a girlfriend somewhere else, because she's not ready to figure out how all that works. Mostly it's about a couple kids trying to figure out how to be friends, and Alice trying to figure out how she fits in the new post-split world. Having lost touch with some of her friends, she makes a new friend who is really nerdy, and it takes them a while to figure out how to do friendship. There's also some drama from the realistic miscommunication between stressed adults and stressed kids. Alice befriends a neighbor kid who has some neurological issues and does not seem to talk or hear speech, and when the girl says a word to her, no one believes her. Alice's mom, who is struggling after a car accident, doesn't have much time to listen. So in some ways (English teachers - essay question!) Alice is dealing with a couple people who she has to work hard to communicate with.Things work out fine in the end. Not perfect, but fine. Real. And Alice has started to answer a bit of her current life questions.