After hitching a ride to California, fourteen-year-old Ben and his father endure some tough times on the streets of San Francisco and in a homeless shelter while trying to find a real home for themselves.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Prolific picture-book author London (Into This Night We Are Rising; The Owl Who Became the Moon) seems to be striving for grit, but he drenches this first novel in syrup. After Aaron's dad's business fails, father and son hitchhike their way from Detroit to San Francisco, girded only with Aaron's "million-dollar 'magination" and Dad's integrity (a Vietnam vet and formerly a coalminer from West Virginia, Dad is "too stubborn" to take welfare). Aaron narrates the story, thickly layering his account with at least one simile or metaphor per paragraph ("We were stuck, sun-bent, like great sunflowers wilting on the roadside"). They journey through encampments of homeless men, detention centers, shelters, tent cities, etc., before Dad finally lands a job and a home for the two of them. Along the way they meet other members of the deserving poor and Aaron gets to dance in the streets with a pretty Latina girl as he spouts his figures of speech. For all the surface social criticism (and even a reference to The Grapes of Wrath), this dulcet novel maintains a fairly traditional stance about personal responsibility: "If you hang tough, you might get what you need," Aaron concludes. "Maybe you've got to help luck happen. Maybe hope helps luck find you. Hope is the hook." Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9?How does Aaron, 14, go from having a life of school, home, and hoops in Detroit to being homeless in San Francisco? After his mentally ill mother fled the family to her West Virginia childhood home, his father drank, sobered up, and then lost his electrical supply business. After thumbing their way West with a big-hearted trucker, father and son are swept up in an arrest designed to clean a San Francisco park of its homeless denizens. Released by a "saint of red tape" and reunited with his parent in a shelter, Aaron enjoys the friendship of a wheel-chair bound, but very active Vietnam vet, and meets an infectiously charming Hispanic dancer who sparks his romantic interest. But what is he to do when Maria can no longer be found; his allotted shelter days are running out; and his best friend in Detroit sends him a letter saying he is running away to join him? Although London displays a bit of a bias (the working poor, the disabled, and most of the homeless are pretty virtuous, while Cadillac drivers and RV owners are heartless), he tells an adventurous story and is a talented, sometimes ironic craftsman. Lyrical, yet also spare, the novel threads together incidents of love and loss, fire and friendship, and symbolism involving whales. The author neatly delivers plot, pace, and description, and celebrates the dignity of Appalachian culture, apparent even in cultural transplantation. An appealingly "skinny" book with a vibrant, unique voice.?Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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