America [Hardcover]

E. R. Frank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2002

"Where would you like to be five years from now?" Dr. B. asks.

"Nowhere," America answers.

By age fifteen, America has already been nowhere. Been nobody. Separated from his foster mother, Mrs. Harper. A runaway living for weeks in a mall, then for months in Central Park. A patient at Applegate, the residential treatment facility north of New York City. And now at Ridgeway, a hospital.

America is a boy, he thinks to himself, who gets lost easy and is not worth the trouble of finding.

But Dr. B. takes the trouble. With abiding care, he nudges America's story from him. An against-the-odds story about America's shattered past with his mother and brothers. About Browning, a man in Mrs. Harper's house who saves America, then betrays him. About a bighearted, hardheaded girl named Liza, and Ty and Fish and Wick and Marshall and Ernie and Tom and Dr. B. himself who care more than America does about whether he lives or dies.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At the discretion of the social welfare system, a 5-year-old boy named America trustingly leaves the safe haven of his foster home for a visit with his desperate, drug-addicted mother. And because of that one lapse in adult judgment, a child is lost within the system until almost 11 years later when he tries to end his own life. It is the patient therapist Dr. B. who must coax an embittered and damaged America into revisiting all the dark alleys of that lonely suicide road in order to face down his fears and dare to be found. "I'm not that little kid anymore.... I'm not white and I'm not black and I'm not anything, but I'm a little bit of everything.... I look down and it's just me." Searingly raw and so painfully honest it nearly draws blood, young-adult novelist E.R. Frank's powerful sophomore effort about a boy nearly broken by neglect and abuse will dampen every eye and brand every heart. Reminiscent of Han Nolan's Born Blue and Sapphire's Push, America is a similarly cathartic combination of brutal truth and brilliant writing. It is simply not to be missed. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

HFrank's (Life Is Funny) well-crafted and moving story begins with a teenage America in a treatment facility after a suicide attempt and alternates between the present mostly his therapy sessions with Dr. B. and the past. Born to a crack addict mother, America was raised by kindly Mrs. Harper, the nanny of a rich white foster family who gave him up "after he started turning his color." The weekend before he starts kindergarten, he visits his birth mother in New York City, and she abandons him in a seedy apartment with his two young brothers. When the police find him years later and return him to Mrs. Harper, he's behind in school, swears constantly and has internalized the belief that he's bad. America is not a saint, but readers see glimmers of his intelligence (one heartbreaking series of scenes shows five-year-old America, unable to find a working telephone, writing Mrs. Harper's phone number everywhere so that he won't forget it), his sense of the poetic and even his kindness. His gradual progress through therapy is especially well orchestrated. The obstacles in his life seem insurmountable (after he returns to Mrs. Harper's, her half-brother repeatedly molests him and he flees to New York City again). But as Mrs. Harper is always telling America, there's "real meaning in the small things," and the author's ability to capture so much emotion in the details makes this book remarkable. For example, when America works up the courage to visit Mrs. Harper in the nursing home, her walls are covered with angels she painted to look like him. A powerful story of forgiveness both of oneself and of others. Ages 12-up.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689847297
• ISBN-13: 978-0689847295
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,087,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cathy is, once again, wrong., May 28, 2005

By 

Freelance Writer (Spokane, Washington United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: America (Paperback)

Cathy says AMERICA uses gritty language authentic to the experience of the protagonist. She's right about that. Then she says it's not appropriate as a library book. On this point, she is dead wrong. In a perfect world, characters like Frank's chronically abused America would only exist in works of troubling fiction. But as the author understands, there are thousands of kids living America's life in our free nation every day. Some do not suffer to the degree America has in the broken foster care system. Some only suffer a taste of abuse. But every teen that believes he or she is the ONLY one living this kind of life will find great comfort and kinship within the pages of America, in part because Frank doesn't shy from the authenticity Cathy finds "offensive." Well, in a way I agree with her. It is deeply offensive that children must endure the kind of pain America and real kids like him have to endure. But telling their stories is NOT offensive. Telling their stories can, in fact, save lives. America may not be for all readers, but that is for each parent to decide for their OWN children. It's not Cathy's decision to make. And as long as Cathy has the intellectual freedom to say it does NOT belong on library shelves, my right to see it safely shelved is protected as well.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contemplate this..., May 6, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: America (Paperback)

Please, step back and pause for a moment. If you don't understand this book, if it is uninspirational or overwhelmingly disturbing, if this novel comes across as entirely wrong in the context of reality, you need to gain some perspective on the lives of so many children. You need a "reality check." It is through ignorance that injustice exists, and these kids suffer for it daily. Step out of the box, please...you'll be changed, and glad you did. More importantly, you'll be able to help. At that point, help.

If you haven't read the book, please read the book. Then, help.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America IS Beautiful, August 27, 2004

By 

Jarrod T Thompson "Young Adult Author" (Junction City, KS) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: America (Paperback)

America is by far the best portrayal of a young person trapped in society's system of foster care that I have ever seen. The book may be too real for some, but not if you are a realist.

America's battle to understand who he is in this world is an exhiliratingly sad ride that alerts readers to a child welfare system that is overworked and understaffed. America actually gets "lost" in the system, which is symbolic of the thousands of American children who are ignored and "lost" everyday in our country's protection services.

America reminds us that our children need more than just parents to raise and watch out for them. Our children need other adults, teachers, coaches, counselors, neighbors and general role models to look out for our youth and set a positive example for them.

All of those commercials that ask for communities to take a second to get to know their youth are not for those of us who already do that. Even if you chose not to have kids, our country was not built on the attitude of "It's not my responsibility."

I love America symbolically, literally and on so many levels I can't even put it into words.

America is beautiful. If this book doesn't touch your emotions, then you are not human. This book is raw, real and heartbreakingly intriguing.

Thank you E.R. Frank for an expertly written Young Adult novel.