Almost Home

by Jessica Blank

Overview

Why would anyone choose to live on the streets? There is Eeyore, just twelve years old when she runs away from her priveleged home, harboring a secret she's too ashamed to tell anyone. Rusty is a sensitive gay teen who winds up alone when his older boyfriend ditches him in Hollywood. Squid has gone through too many foster homes to count. There's Scabius, a delusional punk from Utah who takes the "me against the world" motto to dangerous extremes. And Critter is a heroin dealer with movie star looks and a vulnerable heart. Laura should be home studying, but she can't face another one of her mom's boyfriends. And then there's Tracy, the damaged thread that ties them all together, irrevocably changing each life she touches. This unlikely band of characters form their own dysfunctional family, complete with love and belonging, abuse and betrayal. Each will make their way home, wherever it may be

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423143468
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	07/10/2010
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	423 KB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Jessica Blank is a young writer and actress who has worked in television and film as well as in theaters throughout New York. She wrote the award-winning and hugely successful play, The Exonerated, about death row inmates who have been falsely convicted and then released after being found innocent. The film version starred Susan Sarandon, Aidan Quinn, Danny Glover and Brian Dennehy.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 9 Up
This episodic, meandering novel about seven runaway teens struggling to survive on the Hollywood streets is filled with the rough language and gritty details of drug use and sex (including prostitution) that accompany such a lifestyle. Most of these kids have fled abusive homes, although one girl has simply gone in search of more excitement than her small town offers. Most disturbing is the depiction of a 12-year-old who adopts the name Eeyore when she takes to the streets to escape the sexual abuse of her older stepbrother and the bullying of schoolmates. Although Eeyore's comfortable home is in the nearby Hollywood Hills and her stepmother frequently shops at the Whole Foods market where the girl and her new friends go Dumpster-diving for food, there is no evidence that her parents or school authorities are making any effort to find her. Several times, she returns home to take food and money, but even when she surprises her stepmother during one of these forays, the woman doesn't ask where she has been. Instead, she berates Eeyore for leaving home to be with a dirty, homeless boy, threatens to call the police, and then does nothing as the girl and her friend leave. Readers will find this and many other aspects of the story deeply distressing.
—Ginny GustinCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

The streets of Los Angeles offer an escape to a group of teenagers. Boredom, family issues and sexual abuse led them away from home, and now seven teens struggle to survive on the streets. Through Tracy, a junk-addicted porn star, Eeyore, Rusty, Squid, Critter, Scabius and Laura form a rough community with its own dynamics and hostilities. When 12-year-old Eeyore gets caught up in drugs and prostitution, Tracy has a chance to redeem them both. Rather than alternating the narrator each chapter, Blank gives each voice its own section in turn. With characters ranging in age and experience, the narrative cohesion could easily deteriorate, but skillful blending by the author prevents such muddling. Calculated emotionless presentation of the street-sex trade helps communicate the bleak circumstances in which many homeless youths find themselves; this contrasts nicely with the burgeoning relationships that develop between the teens, especially Squid's passion for a family. The author's note offers resources for both at-risk and street teens. Examining the ties that bring people together and force them apart, this is a harsh and honest view of homeless teen life in the city of angels. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews