# The Thing About Leftovers

**Author:** C.C. Payne
**Grade range:** Grades 4–7
**Age range:** 9–12
**First published:** 2016
**Genre:** Realistic Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780698175754`
**ISBN-10:** `0698175751`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-thing-about-leftovers
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

“This may capture the experience of children of divorce better than any book out there and deserves readership beyond a middle-grade audience. A winner!”–San Francisco City Book Review C. C. Payne intertwines heartache with humor and hope in a novel about navigating divorce and blended families, following your passion, and celebrating who you are. Fizzy is a good Southern girl who just wants to be perfect. And win the Southern Living cook-off. The being perfect part is hard though, since her parents’ divorced and everything in her life has changed.

## Themes

- divorce
- family
- belonging

## Where this book is assigned

### Kentucky Bluegrass Award

- **recommended** · 4th grade · Kentucky — [source: Kentucky Association of School Librarians — Kentucky Bluegrass Award Winner's Circle (grades 3-5 + 6-8; annual since 1983)](https://www.kasl.us/kba/kba-winners-circle)
- **recommended** · 5th grade · Kentucky — [source: Kentucky Association of School Librarians — Kentucky Bluegrass Award Winner's Circle (grades 3-5 + 6-8; annual since 1983)](https://www.kasl.us/kba/kba-winners-circle)
- **recommended** · 6th grade · Kentucky — [source: Kentucky Association of School Librarians — Kentucky Bluegrass Award Winner's Circle (grades 3-5 + 6-8; annual since 1983)](https://www.kasl.us/kba/kba-winners-circle)
- **recommended** · 7th grade · Kentucky — [source: Kentucky Association of School Librarians — Kentucky Bluegrass Award Winner's Circle (grades 3-5 + 6-8; annual since 1983)](https://www.kasl.us/kba/kba-winners-circle)

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