Almost Home

Dallas Hamilton

Mrs. Hallinan

English 4, Period 2

Almost Home. Jessica Blank. New York: Hyperion Books, 2007. (275)

      Almost Home, by Jessica Blank, is a raw, eye-opening story of seven teenagers trying desperately to find where they belong. The characters, Eeyore, Rusty, Squid, Scabius, Critter, Laura and Tracy, all find themselves on the streets of L.A and for awhile, call it home. Each teen tells their part of the story, giving the reader a unique view of each of their battles to survive. But as each tells their story the reader learns that Tracy has an underline role in the story. She is the thread that ties them all together.

      It is clearly shown that Blank wanted to get the reader to imagine what is going through a homeless teens head when they leave home, and what they do to survive. Blank focuses on the fact that runaways aren’t limited by age. Eeyore is just a twelve year old girl that ran away from her privileged life holding a secret she was too ashamed to tell.   Each teen struggles with a certain addiction. Some it is drugs, while others it is the feeling of being wanted and appreciated.

      Jessica Blank wrote this book to have a purpose. She wanted to start an awareness of homeless teens. In America 1.5 million teens run away from there home each year, along with 1 million teens who are kicked out or abandoned by their parents. This is a serious problem that needs to be stopped. The characters in Almost Home are fictional but it doesn’t mean that the situations faced are. Blank’s interpretation of these situations are to the point and really gets in the readers head. The teens that become homeless have an even harder time to succeed in life unlike teens with family support. Being so young and not being able to legally work they are forced to sell drugs or their bodies just to be able to eat.

      For me I found that the book hit every detail of homeless teen life. Blank made the book tie together very smoothly and made...