Summary:
Written as a series of journal pages, Ronnie describes being left by her mother with only some clothes. It seems that her mother, her mom's boyfriend, and her two brothers have moved to Alaska without her. This forces Ronnie into foster care. She's angry (understandable), so she lashes out. She's just trying to get all of these feelings out of her, but this ends up meaning that she is "returned" by several foster families. She's on her last shot. Her newest foster parent, Alison, is a therapist. Alison is Ronnie's last hope. If Alison returns her, then Ronnie will go to a treatment facility. While at Alison's house, she is starting to get a little bit better. She wants to be accepted by the popular crowd, and loses her only friend in the process. Also, she receives a letter from her biological mother and has to deal with the decision of staying with Alison or going to the mother that left her.
My thoughts:
I really liked Ronnie. There was something about her character that really pulled me in right from the beginning. Part of this was going into the story knowing a bit about the summary beforehand. Sometimes that ruins things for me, but this gave me some background to begin with. Since the story begins with Ronnie already with Alison, and then giving the reader the history, I felt like I was ahead of the game with knowing what happened to Ronnie. I went into the story already feeling sympathy for her. I wasn't happy with some of the choices that she made, which made some of the instances in the book tough to read (mostly because I wanted to redirect her), but I feel like she was very realistic. I know so many students that have dropped their best friends for those they thought were more popular. It breaks my heart because I'm always waiting for the fallout. Ronnie also has to deal with the idea of her biological mother. While I can understand the conflict, it is hard for me not to just scream to stay with Alison. Alison is obviously someone that cares for Ronnie deeply and has a profound impact on her, the woman that ran off to Alaska has no business trying to screw that up. However, I'm not Ronnie and don't have to make any of those choices. As you can see, I got into the novel. It's definitely worth reading. I would stick with older students, probably 8th grade and up. There is a good amount of bullying and violence within the novel that you may expect within this type of read.
Written as a series of journal pages, Ronnie describes being left by her mother with only some clothes. It seems that her mother, her mom's boyfriend, and her two brothers have moved to Alaska without her. This forces Ronnie into foster care. She's angry (understandable), so she lashes out. She's just trying to get all of these feelings out of her, but this ends up meaning that she is "returned" by several foster families. She's on her last shot. Her newest foster parent, Alison, is a therapist. Alison is Ronnie's last hope. If Alison returns her, then Ronnie will go to a treatment facility. While at Alison's house, she is starting to get a little bit better. She wants to be accepted by the popular crowd, and loses her only friend in the process. Also, she receives a letter from her biological mother and has to deal with the decision of staying with Alison or going to the mother that left her.
My thoughts:
I really liked Ronnie. There was something about her character that really pulled me in right from the beginning. Part of this was going into the story knowing a bit about the summary beforehand. Sometimes that ruins things for me, but this gave me some background to begin with. Since the story begins with Ronnie already with Alison, and then giving the reader the history, I felt like I was ahead of the game with knowing what happened to Ronnie. I went into the story already feeling sympathy for her. I wasn't happy with some of the choices that she made, which made some of the instances in the book tough to read (mostly because I wanted to redirect her), but I feel like she was very realistic. I know so many students that have dropped their best friends for those they thought were more popular. It breaks my heart because I'm always waiting for the fallout. Ronnie also has to deal with the idea of her biological mother. While I can understand the conflict, it is hard for me not to just scream to stay with Alison. Alison is obviously someone that cares for Ronnie deeply and has a profound impact on her, the woman that ran off to Alaska has no business trying to screw that up. However, I'm not Ronnie and don't have to make any of those choices. As you can see, I got into the novel. It's definitely worth reading. I would stick with older students, probably 8th grade and up. There is a good amount of bullying and violence within the novel that you may expect within this type of read.
