Running Toward Home [Paperback]

Betty Jane Hegerat (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2006

Transferred between foster homes for most of his life, twelve-year-old Corey Brinkman has developed a bad habit of running away. His new foster parents, Wilma and Ben Howard, are determined to make their home his for life, but old habits are hard to break. Wilma takes Corey to the Calgary Zoo for his annual visit with his birth mother, despite her discomfort about Tina Brinkman and the fever Corey is pretending not to have. When Corey goes missing at the zoo, his two mothers are forced into an uneasy truce in the search for their son. "Running Toward Home" reveals the complex relationships surrounding a foster child, and the fine line between protection and standing in the way of life lessons. For twenty-four hours the Calgary Zoo becomes the entire world, and the lines between the nurturing instincts in animals and humans become blurred.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Three deceptively simple strands -- a mother, a foster mother and a runaway boy - are woven together against a slightly surreal backdrop of the Calgary Zoo at night, when tigers and dinosaurs roam free. Once joined, those strands form an emotional knot not unlike that at the heart, or in the stomach, of every family, from time to time, as its members run from and toward each other. Betty Jane Hegerat has written a small gem of a novel." -- Dave Margoshes.

About the Author

Betty Jane Hegerat grew up in New Sarepta and Camrose, Alberta, finishing high school in Edmonton. She currently lives in Calgary. Hegerat earned a BA from the University of Alberta, and a MA of Social Work from the University of Calgary. In addition to being a social worker and a mother of three, she also teaches courses at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre in Calgary. Hegerat’s work was featured in several literary publications, such as in the NeWest Review, the Toronto Star, and Alberta Views, and has won numerous prestigious writing competitions. Recently admitted to the University of British Columbia’s MFA in Creative Writing Program, Hegerat will begin this program in July 2006.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Newest Pr (September 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897126018
• ISBN-13: 978-1897126011
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,017,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Foster Child Seeks Home, January 3, 2009

By 

Gordon Neufeld (Schenectady, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Running Toward Home (Paperback)

This book has a modest premise - a boy hides out at the Calgary Zoo and ends up spending most of the night there - but the drama of how he comes to be "lost" (at least in the eyes of both his foster mom and his real mom) plays out with a good deal of tension. The book is also an eye-opening look at how children end up in the care of the Alberta government and how they are handled by various social workers who usually mean well but are often unable to see beyond the rules. Corey, the 12-year-old boy who is the focus of this book, has been bounced around between various foster parents for years because his real mother is unable to care for him due to her dangerous and violent boyfriend. Corey finally winds up in a loving home, but feels discarded by his real mom who takes him to the zoo for a day, then bolts to see her boyfriend. It takes the combined efforts of both the foster mother and the real mother, and the timely arrival of the foster father, to bring this boy home at last. A good book for pre-teen boys and caring mothers to read.