Leaving Home: Stories [Hardcover]

Hazel Rochman (Editor), Darlene Z. McCampbell (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1997

Here is an unusual collection of short stories, from a variety of distinguished writers from different cultures and different viewpoints, that explores the turning point in every adolescent’s life when he or she is forced to take that first step away from home, family, and the known. From personal tales of unwed mothers, arranged marriages, and divorcing parents, to stories about refugees and war resistance, Leaving Home paints a canvas of universal experience for teen-age readers, and includes stories by Tim Wynne-Jones, Sandra Cisneros, Gary Soto, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

How do we become who we need to be? How do we make the transition from child to adult? Sometimes we have very few people to guide us. Sometimes the journeys are lonely. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to see how far we've come. "Leaving Home" is a collection of stories by some of the world's most powerful writers (including Toni Morrison, Amy Tan, Gary Soto, Norma Fox Mazer, and Sandra Cisneros) about departing from familiar worlds, encountering pain and confusion, finding a new way of being. Transcendent, magical, transforming . . . for readers young and old.

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of stories from 15 contemporary writers includes work by Amy Tan, Toni Morrison, Gary Soto and Tim Wynne-Jones. "Conjuring individual dreams of escape or refuge, these selections cast different spectrums of light on significant turning points," said PW in a starred review. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; 1st edition (February 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060248734
• ISBN-13: 978-0060248734
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,601,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfull collage of short stories, October 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Leaving Home: Stories (Hardcover)

Leaving Home is a great book filled with 16 wonderful short stories by a terrific cast of writers. Some of those writers include Sandra Cisneros, Amy Tan, and Toni Morrison. If you are the type of person who enjoys reading about stories that pull at your heart and evoke feelings then this is the book for you. The stories in this book are about all different kinds of people that are forced to leave their homes for one reason or another, the problems that they encounter, and how they choose to deal with them. For example, one of my favorites is about a girl named Barnsey. She is forced by her parents to get on a bus and go visit her grandparents. While on this bus she happens to be seated next a significantly older and "freakish" looking girl named Dawn. As the bus ride progresses she gets to know Dawn and finds out that she is actually a very nice girl and is not all that dissimilar from herself. This is not the only kind of story in this book, ot just happens to be a personal favorite.

I have never really read a book like this before but I think after reading this one I might consider the idea. I'm not one that likes to sit down and read novels because I tend to loose interest about half-way through. I like the short stories because they are like condensed versions of the novels but I still seem to get as much out of them as I would anything else.

The only reason that I could see someone not enjoying this book is if they could not relate or connect with the stories. Since these stories are about actual events that took place to the authors then that could be possible. You just have to try and put yourself in their shoes and go along with it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars leaving home: just a state of mind, April 17, 2002

By 

FRANCISCO RIVERA (los angeles,ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leaving Home: Stories (Paperback)

how many times have we gone through an overboring period in our teenage years when we felt that we couldn't expand our horizons? how many times were we either excited, concerned, or upset about something that happened during our chilhood? this is what leaving home is about, states of mind. it's easy to read a story, but it may not be that easy to live it. however, it's easy to picture it in your head, and that happens whenever a story is well-related. In Leaving Home you don't get anything besides plenty of well-related personal passages that changed somebody's life, and they can make you realize how or when did your life changed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leaving home to find home..., June 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Leaving Home: Stories (Hardcover)

Rochman and McCampbell's Leaving_Home is a thoughtful collection of stories and poems that brings us in touch with those emotions that overcome us when we hear the word "home." These stories and excerpts include especially powerful selections from Amy Tan, Tim Wynne-Jones, and Tim O'Brien. Together, these stories remind us of the importance of our roots, and are at once reminiscent of Mann's Tonio_Kroger, but more thorough. A perfect reading selection for graduates.