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Title details for Carry Me Home by Janet Fox - Wait list

Carry Me Home

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
0 of 1 copy available
"A poignant and powerful reminder that homelessness is not hopelessness." —Kirby Larson, author of Newbery Honor book Hattie Big Sky

Two sisters struggle to keep their father's disappearance a secret in this tender middle grade novel that's perfect for fans of Katherine Applegate and Lynda Mullaly Hunt.
Twelve-year-old Lulu and her younger sister, Serena, have a secret. As Daddy always says, "it's best if we keep it to ourselves," and so they have. But hiding your past is one thing. Hiding where you live—and that your Daddy has gone missing—is harder.

At first Lulu isn't worried. Daddy has gone away once before and he came back. But as the days add up, with no sign of Daddy, Lulu struggles to take care of the responsibilities they used to manage as a family.

Lulu knows that all it takes is one slip-up for their secret to come spilling out, for Lulu and Serena to be separated, and for the good things that have been happening in school to be lost.

But family is all around us, and Lulu must learn to trust her new friends and community to save those she loves and to finally find her true home.
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  • Accessibility

    The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.

    Summary

    A simple complexity publication with some images, converted to meet EPUB Accessibility specifications of WCAG-AA level. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order, structural navigation, and semantic structure.

    Ways Of Reading

    • Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and font size, spaces between paragraphs, sentences, words, and letters, as well as color of background and text).

    • All content can be read as read aloud speech or dynamic braille.

    • Has alternative text descriptions for images.

    Conformance

    • The publication contains a conformance statement that it meets the EPUB Accessibility and WCAG 2 Level AA standard.

    • This publication claims to meet EPUB Accessibility 1.0 WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

    Navigation

    • Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.

    • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation.

    Additional Information

    • Page breaks included

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  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      June 15, 2021
      Twelve-year-old Lulu must care for her little sister when they are left homeless and alone. The girls' father disappears one morning from the Chevy Suburban in which he, Lulu, and Selena live. They've been in an RV park in Montana since driving up from Texas, where the girls' mother died after a devastating, financially ruinous illness. For two weeks, Lulu manages to keep up the routine (food bank, laundromat, and picking up Selena from her after-school program), fending off queries about her dad. The narrative focus stays tightly with Lulu's point of view, her understanding of the world informing her decisions. She's afraid to ask for help, believing that she and Selena will be separated if anyone finds out about their situation. Lulu, the target of the contempt of some classmates, is befriended by both Jack, a boy who persuades her to try out for the school musical, and the town librarian, who unwittingly provides a refuge. Fox offers a message via Jack when he learns about Lulu's life: "No one should have to live in a car." Cranes--paper ones that Lulu and Selena fold, inspired by both the story of Hiroshima survivor Sadako Sasaki and the sandhill cranes migration--represent wishes granted and a kind of grace, leading to a satisfying, redemptive conclusion nicely pitched to a young audience. All the characters seem to be White. Sobering and convincing. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-11)

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      August 1, 2021
      Grades 4-7 After her mother's death, 12-year-old Lulu has been living in a run-down SUV with her younger sister, Serena, and their devastated father. Montana is a far cry from their familiar Texas, but they've made it work, setting up camp in an RV park, spending days at school and work, and sleeping in the car at night. Dad promises better days ahead, but their precarious existence is upended when, one day, he fails to return home. An increasingly anxious Lulu carries on as usual, fearing sibling separation if anyone finds out. Waiting for her father's return, she dodges questions and cares for Serena while navigating middle school and increasingly suspicious (but kind) townspeople. Fox's moving story is told in flashes of the "Now," "Before," and "Way Before," slowly and affectingly filling in the family's history, as well as a detailed explanation of their situation. A reassuring but realistic ending encourages readers to ask for help when needed and emphasizes that there is always someone who will care. A compassionate and empathetic examination of being unhoused.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • BookPage
      Living in a car isn’t really so bad. Not when Daddy makes a nice place to sleep in the back of the Suburban, and the bathrooms and showers in the RV park aren’t too far away. In Janet Fox’s Carry Me Home, things are tough for 12-year-old Lulu and her little sister, Serena, but not too tough, because they always have Daddy, and Daddy knows things will get better. And it seems like they really will—until Lulu wakes up one morning and Daddy isn’t there.  After a few days go by and Daddy doesn’t come back, Lulu knows that she and Serena are on their own. Lulu is determined to keep them together, so she makes sure they get to school on time, visits the food pantry and the library and does just enough to keep well-intentioned teachers, librarians and after-school care providers from asking too many hard questions. But with no more money coming in and a cold Montana winter approaching, Lulu is running out of options. Carry Me Home unspools in short chapters that alternate between the present and the past. Readers see Lulu and Serena’s lives when their mother was still alive and in the immediate aftermath of her death, giving them an understanding of how Lulu’s family came to be in this impossible situation and why she feels that the weight of her little family rests solely on her young shoulders. Fox gently depicts the way Lulu manages their basic needs while balancing the difficulties (and joys) of navigating a new school and finding her way in the world.  With accessible prose, brisk pacing and well-developed characters, Fox’s empathetic novel encourages readers to understand how people experiencing homelessness are individuals with stories and, like everyone, deserve compassion and support.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:4.7
  • Lexile® Measure:790
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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