Details

Length: 376
Story Build: quickly paced 
Character development:   
Age Recommendation:   6th grade and up
Reasoning: narrator has lost both parents; she is also dealing with homelessness

Summary and Review

A few students had recommended this text to me, and I think even my soul sister, who has a tremendous blog about books, had told me to give it a read. It felt like fate, then, when one of my students donated some books to my classroom library (how lucky am I?! I have such thoughtful kiddos). I immediately borrowed it from my own library (ha!) and dove in. 

Jacobson, like Lynda Mullaly Hunt, isn’t afraid to paint a struggle for her readers. She took on a fictional account of a realistic problem in order to pique her young reader’s minds and interest about youth homelessness. 

Ari is in her last year of elementary school in a gifted program, and like all the students around her, she is curious about where she will end up for her first year of middle school. This is the topic of most conversations swirling around Ari; even her best friend is obsessed with it. However, Ari is slipping. Her grades and effort are not what they used to be, and while her teachers and friends notice her downward trend, no one really knows why this has occurred. 

This is because Ari doesn’t want them to know the truth; she and her brother, Gage, are homeless. 

Ari and Gage lost their parents, and Gage, 19, doesn’t get along with their guardian, a long-time friend of their parents. So, as a promise to their mother, Ari and Gage stick together; therefore, when Gage decides to leave the stressful (he thinks) confines of their guardian’s home, Ari leaves, too. 

You might think that Gage sounds like a punk, and while you can see that he’s a tough young man, you can’t help but root for him because he loves his sister so much. The relationship between the brother and sister is really well-established and beautifully written by Jacobson and is a clear highlight of her novel. 

The siblings rotate through spending nights with friends and at homeless shelters that they have built relationships with so that they can sneak in and out when necessary. So, not only is Ari juggling the typical pre-teenage angst of almost-being-a-middle-schooler, but she is worried about where her next meal will come from, where she will be able to bathe, and where she can get a warm, maybe, cushion to crash. 

Throughout the novel, you think, This can’t really happen. But it does, and it is happening across the country. This is a story about bravery, resilience, love, and self-awareness; it’s also about knowing when to ask for help and when to let go even when it hurts. 

Celebrations

I need to celebrate Jacobson’s realistic portrayal of her characters and the situation. She doesn’t hint at the reality of Ari’s situation; she allows you to fully immerse yourself in the struggles of teen homelessness. It was also a great reminder that we never really know what is going on at home in the lives of our students; we need to be caring and compassionate in our approaches and to be more aware of signs of struggles.

Hesitations

I really have no hesitations about the text. It was insightful and touching and worth the read.