What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know this book covers poignant topics about
death, homelessness, fear, and abuse. A 12-year-old girl
narrates through a journal her experiences with the deaths of
her parents, foster care, and life on the road as a homeless
person. There are descriptions of her drug-addicted mother, who
eventually dies from an overdose; various forms of abuse in
foster care; and fear of starvation, freezing to death, and
physical harm from other homeless people. Some passages about
her missing her mother and fearing for her life may be hard for
tender-hearted adolescents to read. But with the guidance of an
adult, this is a suspenseful story that mature teens won't soon
forget.
Families can use this book to discuss homelessness. There are people who reach out to help the main character: workers at shelters, soup kitchens, and food carts; farmers, and finally another adolescent. What are ways that kids and families can help others in similar situations? Why is Holly afraid of social services, and what went wrong with the "system"? Given what she's been through, was it OK for her to shoplift necessities for survival? Parents can also talk about what the journal has provided for Holly. Parents can point out that it was another adolescent who helped her in the end and the important role that peers can play in each other's lives.
Common Sense Media Review
For mature teens with an interest in social consciousness or
suspenseful books about the trials of other adolescents,
RUNAWAY, is a sure hit.
Holly chronicles her homeless experience, vividly, and angrily at times, in a journal given to her a former teacher who had some insight into this Holly's troubles. Though she seems much older than a typical 12-year-old and her poetry borders on cliché at times, her dialogue is believable given the extreme circumstances that she faces.
Author Wendelin Van Draanen, a former teacher, clearly knows kids this age well and actually spent time sleeping outdoors, stowing away in a bus, and exploring a shelter to have a taste of the homeless experience -- her research is evident in the book's careful details. The help of another peer, Sammy (who's the main character in Van Draanen's Sammy Keyes Mysteries), is a pivotal connection. Unfortunately Runaway suffers from an unrealistic ending, but it's appropriate for teen readers while instilling social consciousness about those less fortunate in the world.
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