Friday, December 13, 2013

Walk Me Home - but get some decent shoes first!

Walk Me Home –by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Fiction, Coming of Age
374 pages / 479 KB
5 Stars

Walk Me Home is a well-written and captivating story of two young girls – Carly, 16 and Jen, 11 – who find themselves orphaned in New Mexico and fear the authorities will separate them, so they take off on their own.

Carly wants to go back to Tulare, CA where her mother's ex-boyfriend, Teddy, is thought of as a step-father, and she knows he will want them, take them in, and keep them safe. What she doesn't know, or rather chooses to not believe, is that Teddy tried to molest Jen the night her mother kicked him out and took the girls to live with her new boyfriend, who died with her mother.

The girls manage to walk into Arizona, and end up at the dead end of a road in the middle of nowhere on the Wakapi Indian Reservation. Tired, thirsty, and afraid of everyone, they lay in wait to break into the hen house of an old Indian woman who lives alone out in the middle of this nowhere. She catches them, and makes them stay for a week to work off the damage they caused.

Carly with the Chip on her Shoulder finally decides to leave Jen, who doesn't want to go any farther, and sets out to find Teddy on her own. By the time she does, she's done a remarkable amount of growing up, and recognizing some things about her – and Teddy, and her sister, Jen, who is now living someplace in Arizona on an Indian Reservation.

I could not put this book down until I finished it. I had to know how it would end. It was truly worth the late 'light out' to get there, too.

I think most adults would enjoy this story, even though it is intended for Young Adults. Then, again, maybe I don't fit in the category of 'most adults'?


Thank you, Ms. Hyde, for a great read, and a remarkable story. Not to mention an ending that brought smiles to my face.

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