Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Oh no! Not another Homeless teen book!


Joon-Mee is a 12-year-old Korean-American who runs away from her trouble home. She, like so many teens out there, has had it with her family. Joon wants to be free and she ends up on the mean streets of New York City in the 1980s.

The novel was good, but I have read three other novels about the same subject and I see a lot of overlapping in them. The book was good, but it didn't stand out among the crowd as the best of the best. I mean common, how much more is there to write about when it comes to this subject? Bad home life. Kid can't take it anymore. Kid runs away. Kid meets older street kids. Kid does naughty things in order to survive(drugs, prostitution, stealing etc. etc.) Kid sees the error of their ways and becomes good again. YAWN.

Despite the fact that I'm a little sarcastic here (could you tell?) the book has its merits. I think students will enjoy this book. It touches on some subjects that teens love to read about, such as drug abuse, prostitution, and racism. The characters are interesting and realistic. The language is gritty and could scare off a few parents or school librarians.

Yet with all the gritty realism aside I just couldn't enjoy this book. Maybe I have had my fill of teen runaway novels.

For students looking for a book about runaways then this is for them. However if you have read two or more books about teen runaways then I would steer clear of this one. It feels like the same ol' same ol'.

2 comments:

Laina said...

My favourite ones are Theory of Relativity (I'm 80% sure that's the right title) and No Fixed Address, those are the ones that have stuck with me. I read No Fixed Address at least five times.

YA Librarian said...

I havent heard of No Fixed Address. I'm going to have to check this out. Thanks!