Someone's Gonna End Up Crying

By: Jo Knowles

Narrated by: Laura Knight Keating

In this authentic and heartfelt middle-grade novel, Maple uses her artwork to help sort through sibling relationships, school drama, and her parents’ increasingly fraught marriage.

Ten-year-old Maple can’t wait for summer: No more math! Adventures with her friends! Best of all, she and Dad are finally going to build a real treehouse. Or are they? Lately Dad has been quick to storm off when he argues with Mom, which happens more and more. Maple seeks refuge in her sketchbook, filling it with comics and other drawings and posing the questions she can’t bring herself to ask anywhere else. She imagines “Dadlandia,” a place that Dad whooshes off to when he’s gone. Maple confides in her favorite tree—her namesake—that she wishes Dad would come home for good. But eventually, Maple will need to step outside her imagination and confront what’s happening for real. For that, she will need support from friends and family—and strength and courage from within. Celebrated author Jo Knowles delivers complex characters and emotions with care to perfectly capture Maple’s creative spirit, her struggles, and her capacity for hope.

©2025 Jo Knowles (P)2025 Recorded Books

a story of grief and struggle

Someone's Gonna End Up Crying by @JoKnowlesAuthor & @GlynnisFawkes is the story of a young girl who is struglling with anger and depression after her father moves out. She has two older siblings, and their family of five were always close, sharing family movie nights, inside jokes, and lovely traditions. But her parents begin arguing often and her dad often leaves the family without explaining his destination or how long he will be gone. He promised Maple that he would help her build a tree fort, but her mom and siblings have to help instead. There were some hints that he may be struggling with depression, but it is never stated clearly. I would have liked that to be a bigger part of the storyline as I think it could really help the reader to have some compassion for Maple's dad.

I loved the illustrations in the book, showing Maple's drawings as she imagines what her dad is doing.

I think this book would resonate with children going through divorce with their families. I would recommend it to kids in 3rd through 5th grade, as I don't think older children would find Maple mature enough for their liking.