Common Sense Note
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 Review
Reviewed By: Pam Gelman
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.
From The Book
I didn't say it, though. I kept it all inside. Steaming, hot and angry inside.
I found the soup kitchen.
I got my sandwich and juice.
I walked to the outskirts of town, where I sat on the bank of a broccoli field and thought. And thought. And thought. And this is what I've decided:
I am not going back to the overpass.
I am going to make a home for myself.
I've done enough spinning my wheels.
It's time to figure out a way to do it.
I am going to teach myself math and science and history, and maybe even art or music.
I am going to do good and be good, and someday, someway, I will become a veterinarian.
I swear on my mother's grave, I will.
Plot Summary:
Through journal entries, 12-year-old Holly describes life in foster care and then as a homeless runaway. On her own she constantly searches for food, warmth, and shelter. She stows away on buses, trains, and trucks while she makes her way West. She eventually arrives in Los Angeles to find herself in East L.A., fearful of her life. Finally reaching the beach, she's made her goal. But moving north up the coast, she befriends few and finds life in the community of the homeless not very welcoming. Until she makes one life-changing connection.
Related Books:
Books with Similar Themes:
Tyrell by Coe Booth
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
More Troubled Teens:
Perfect by Natasha Friend
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentSome sexual abuse by foster fathers. Man walks in on girl going to the bathroom. |
 |
 |
||
ViolenceMain character is hit by a man who picked up girl and mother hitchhiking, attacked by homeless man causing fear for her life, hunted down by another homeless man for stealing his items, locked in laundry room without food or bathroom by foster parents, and had face flushed in toilet twice. |
|
|
||
Language"Pervert," and "shooting up" is the worst it gets. |
|
|
||
Message |
|
|
||
Social BehaviorThough the main character encounters many bad role models, she makes key connections that end up saving her life. Her resiliency is inspiring. Her teacher who gave her the journal is a constant reminder of hope. |
 |
 |
||
CommercialismA few name brands including Hefty bags and Sani-flush |
 |
|
||
Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoMother was a heroin addict. She describes her shooting up and constantly searching for drugs by saying, "looking for a doctor." Mother dies from drug overdose. |
|
|
||
