Way Home [Hardcover]

Libby Hathorn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 1994 | Age Level: 8 and up

Shane finds a no-name stray cat and takes it through the dangers of the city to his home, a corner of an alley.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A boy named Shane is heading home through the city one night when he meets a stray kitten in an alley. Tucking it inside his jacket, Shane maneuvers past a variety of dangers-bullies, traffic, a snarling dog-until they at last reach his home, itself no more than a corner in another alley. Hathorn's gritty evocation of life on the streets is matched by Rogers's darkly realistic visuals, in which the lights of cars or the glitter of showroom windows serve only to emphasize the shadows and grime of the pathways Shane and his kitten must traverse. An air of menace prevails throughout, conveyed through both large and small details, and reinforced by the placement of the text on a black background with a jagged, torn edge. In this honest, unsparing collaboration, an import from Australia, Shane's world is harsh, sometimes frightening, but not entirely hopeless: his hip, affectionate patter ("Whadda you reckon, Catlegs? Shane's taking you home right now") cuts through the darkness like a redemptive beacon, tenuous yet bright. Ages 6-10.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-8-In this distressing look at life on the streets of a big city, Shane, a preteen boy, heads home past broken windows, graffiti-scribbled walls, dilapidated fences, and alleys strewn with trash. On the way, he avoids a group of tough boys and encounters a fierce dog, talking all the while to the stray kitten snuggled safely inside his jacket. Finally he crawls through a jagged hole in a chainlink fence and into the cozy, sheltered corner of an alley that he calls home. A toy robot is the only sign of childhood amid a bed of newspapers, blanket, pictures torn from magazines, and empty milk cartons. Soft, double-page, charcoal-pencil drawings in muted shades of blue, brown, gray, and terra cotta on black backgrounds sharply contrast the brightness of signs, buildings, and rush-hour traffic with the secluded loneliness of dark alleys. Rogers has created a feeling of drama and harshness by placing white text on black backgrounds that appear to have a large piece of each page torn away to reveal a glimpse of the city underneath. Gentle closeups of Shane show a handsome boy with slicked-back hair; tidy baseball jacket; and t-shirt and jeans sans worn spots or patches. He's a healthy, cool-looking kid, seemingly well fed and neat, so his situation seems somewhat at odds with his appearance. Only one split-heeled sneaker and his grimy hands hint at what his home will look like. There is no explanation of his plight in either text or illustrations. Although this story is disturbing, it lacks credibility and thus the pathos that might be evoked by such powerful artwork. Keith Greenberg's Erik Is Homeless (Lerner, 1992) presents a realistic picture of the life of a homeless boy and his mom in a factual format that children can understand.
Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (September 6, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517599090
• ISBN-13: 978-0517599099
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,856,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Own, December 11, 1999

By 

Peter D. Duckett - See all my reviews

This review is from: Way Home (Hardcover)

This book is a masterpiece of the picture book format. The text is artfully written in that it provides numerous twists and turns for the reader creating narrow passageways which parallel the journey of the main character. The artwork is equally masterful. I love the idea that the end papers appear as crumpled paper and each of the images appears to be a torn photograph. These images are suggestive of the "throw-away" nature of the child involved in the story. Only at the end when the boy arrives home (a box) with his recently found cat does the single closing photo appear whole and without tears. There are other subtle meanings also woven into the illustrations. Look carefully but most importantly enjoy. This picture book provoked three days of discussion from a group of 5th grade students with whom I worked. They couldn't let the book go and they kept finding things to discuss in it. I pairs well with Monkey Island by Paula Fox and the Lady in a Box (author?.Also I Can Hear the Sun by Patricia Polacco.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good childrens book to reveiw, November 26, 2003

By 

darleen cashion (austraila) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Way Home (Hardcover)

(...)in english we have to chose a childrens book to reasearch and i picked way home i would like to say it is a fantastic book and has great illerstations we also had to research the author and i found she was a very nice person to research on some web sites it says the reading level is for 4-8 year old well i disagree i would have to say i enjoyed it (...)