Someplace to Go [Hardcover]

Maria Testa (Author), Karen Ritz (Illustrator)

Book Description

Davey describes how he spends his time after school trying to keep safe and warm until he can meet his mother and older brother when the shelter opens at eight o'clock.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4?A well-executed story about social hardships and homelessness. Young Davey, his mother, and his older brother are living in a shelter and eating at a soup kitchen. The boys' mother worked in a paper mill "for most of her life" until it closed two years earlier and has just recently been hired at a hospital laundry. If she can hold her job and 16-year-old Anthony can find work as well, they can begin to think about renting an apartment. After-school hours are challenging for Davey; he passes the time at a neighborhood supermarket, the public library, and walking the streets until the soup kitchen opens. He is an unassuming character whose home situation goes unnoticed by his classmates. The mood of this serious yet hopeful narrative is enhanced with expressive watercolor illustrations. Someplace to Go focuses on the realities of homelessness and successfully gives them a human dimension.?Barbara Osborne Williams, Queens Public Library, Jamaica, NY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 3^-5, younger for reading aloud. The feelings are on target in this picture book about homelessness for older readers. The affecting first-person narrative begins at the end of the school day. All the kids are excited about going home except Davey, who has nowhere to go. So begins his solitary sojourn through the cold city streets. Davey's stops include the library, where a security guard tells him that sleeping is not allowed, and a soup kitchen, where he makes a connection with a very small child. Like the text, the artwork has emotional resonance. Although some of the facial expressions are awkwardly rendered, Karen Ritz's watercolors have a good sense of composition, color, and perspective, capturing Davey's loneliness, despair and, finally, happiness at meeting his mother and brother after a long day--even if it is at the homeless shelter where they sleep. Julie Corsaro

Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807575240
• ISBN-13: 978-0807575246
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.