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Reviewed by: Emily McFarlane, Elementary School Librarian Title: The Runaway's Diary Author: James Patterson & Emily Raymond Publisher: JIMMY Patterson Books/Little, Brown and Company
Year: 2022 Good for Grades: 9-12 Genre/Type of Book: Realistic Fiction/Graphic Novel
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: Homelessness, running away, underage drinking, drug use, mention of teen pregnancy, generally unsafe situations all round Recommended for a school library: Neutral, neither strongly yes or no Reason(s) for choosing the book: As a fan of graphic novels, I am always looking for interesting ones! If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be: When running away to find someone, what lengths will you go to?
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Review:
"Eleanor" has run away from home. She's not really running away, but running to find her sister, Sam. Sam ran away to Seattle recently and life hasn't been the same since, so Eleanor has gone off to find her. She doesn't have any money, or a plan, just hope that everything will work out in the end. Through many misadventures and the kindness of strangers, she eventually finds ways to keep herself safe, feed herself, and make money by telling elaborate stories on street corners. She makes friends with other street kids and they help her out by teaching her how to get by while she looks for her sister. All the while, Eleanor has been harboring a secret...the reason Sam left. Will Eleanor manage to find Sam and apologize for what she did?
This graphic novel was a wild ride. The main character, Eleanor, is 15 years old when she runs away looking for the sister she feels she caused to run away. She has no plan or money, just a suitcase full of power bars and a hope that when she gets there, her sister will answer the phone and be waiting for her at the bus stop. As many misadventures begin, Eleanor starts out full of hope and begins to see the real difficulty she is facing as the story continues. She trusts in the kindness of strangers for a place to stay and help on how to survive the streets, tries to get different jobs, and eventually makes friends with another street kid who helps her through the tougher portions of her homelessness. Jesse is a good friend to Eleanor towards the end of the story and inadvertently helps her find Sam.
Throughout the graphic novel, we see Sam face many of the trials of homelessness- hunger, having no money, trying to get a job, finding a safe place to sleep, staying clean, figuring out who to trust, and how to generally get by. It is a not-so-subtle look at the life a lot of people on the streets are facing, which might help students develop some empathy for how hard that kind of life is. Instead of just reinforcing the "homelessness is a choice" narrative through Eleanor, Jesse's family kicked him out for being gay and he hasn't had a place to go. This should hopefully show that not every situation is the same, and that most people can't "just stop being homeless." The characters feel realistic- not everyone is nice to Eleanor, and many people are downright hostile to her. So the portrait of street life has some depth to it, which is interesting for a YA level text.
Sam is portrayed at the beginning as the perfect, beautiful older sister character but it is revealed throughout the story that she was having a hard time. She is portrayed as drinking underage, possibly driving drunk, and referenced has doing drugs before running away. When it is finally revealed that Eleanor set Sam up to get caught at school with alcohol, the real reason for Sam's leaving is explained- she was pregnant and couldn't face her parents. So a lot of heavy topics/material for the end of the graphic novel, on top of the already heavy homelessness storyline. Overall, the end of the story is very bittersweet and left open to interpretation, which could open up a lot of interesting conversations about this one. This would be great in conversations about social justice topics like homelessness, addiction, and the rights of teenagers/young adults vs adults, as well as opening the doors to conversations about why people make the choices they do and how the consequences affect others. Also, it is a great story about how we never know what is really going on under the surface of someone's life- Jesse disappears a lot but we don't find out what's really going on, and Sam ran away for entirely different reasons than Eleanor thinks. Plus, what drove her to engage in drinking and drugs while she was still living at home? The narrative doesn't fully explain. I like how there is a lot left to interpretation, since it opens up conversations with students and they can inject their own ideas and experiences.
I would definitely recommend this for the more mature set though, as it is a roadmap of bad decisions and they need to be able to understand why most of what Eleanor does is a terrible idea. I found it to be overall an okay story, and I definitely wanted to know how the mystery ended, but I wasn't enthralled. The art style is very American manga, which is somewhat refreshing in the landscape of cutesy style we've been seeing lately. I am just hung up on the fact that I think kids really will need to digest this one with an adult, or at least be ready to have someone go "please tell me you understand that every choice she makes is certifiably dangerous?"
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Find this video and more about The Runaway's Diary at Teachingbooks.net
For more information about this book, see the Publishers Website