A Story That Will Be Hard To Forget
Author: C.H. Armstrong
Publisher: Central Avenue Publishing (February 5, 2019)
Genre: YA Family & Relationships
- Paperback: 320 pages
Description
Being a homeless teen is harder. Keeping it a secret is even harder.
Seventeen-year-old Abby Lunde and her family are living on the streets. They had a normal life back in Omaha but, thanks to her mother’s awful mistake, they had to leave what little they had behind for a new start in Rochester. Abby tries to be an average teenager—fitting into school, buoyed by dreams of a boyfriend, college and a career in music. But Minnesota winters are unforgiving, and so are many teenagers.
Her stepdad promises to put a roof over their heads, but times are tough for everyone and Abby is doing everything she can to keep her shameful secret from her new friends. The divide between rich and poor in high school is painfully obvious, and the stress of never knowing where they’re sleeping or where they’ll find their next meal is taking its toll on the whole family.
As secrets are exposed and the hope for a home fades, Abby knows she must trust those around her to help. But will her friends let her down the same way they did back home, or will they rise to the challenge to help them find a normal life?
(from the publisher)
My Thoughts:
The Lunde family lives a perfectly normal life in Omaha, Nebraska, or so it seems. When seventeen-year-old Abby’s mother, who teaches at the high school, is caught having an affair with the coach things suddenly are anything but normal. Abby is ridiculed unmercifully even by those she considers to be her close friends. Her mother resigns and soon after, her stepfather loses his job.
With no income, they are forced to make some hard decisions. The family of four head out in their van for Rochester, Minnesota with the hopes of finding jobs and rebuilding their lives. However, sometimes things don’t happen as imagined.
The winters are very cold, money is running low, and they find themselves confined to what little they do have, a van.
Parking in the Walmart lot, they all attempt to sleep, but not much room and frigid weather make it very hard to accomplish.
Abby and her young sister start school but trying to hide the facts that they have no home or money are challenging and embarrassing.
Abby discovers that many of the kids at the high school are very well-to-do, yet she makes a few friends very
quickly, as well as one enemy. Trish Landry is a popular rich girl and ex-girlfriend of the football quarterback who just
happens to be Abby’s new boyfriend.
Though the family does a very good job of trying to hide their homelessness, eventually secrets are exposed.
Will it be a repeat of what happened at Abby’s last school? Her friends abandoned her after finding out about her mother? Or will her new friends stick with her if they discover she’s been living a lie?
What Concerned Me:
Very little concerned me, but I half wondered if the ending was tied up a little too neatly with a bright red bow. As a reader, that makes a book a bit happier, but did the story end realistically? I don’t know. What did you think?
What I Liked Most:
Though the main story is one of homelessness, other plots weave through making it extremely interesting on several levels. It was so touching and led me to a new understanding of each family member and what they were experiencing.
This book will forever come to my mind when I think of homelessness.
What a great book for assigned classroom reading!
C.H. Armstrong is an Oklahoma native transplanted in Minnesota for twenty-seven years. A 1992 graduate of the University of Oklahoma, she holds a B.A. in Journalism with a minor in History. A prolific reader of many genres, Cathie — as she is called by her friends — vividly remembers learning to read and the thrill of “unlocking the code” behind the letters that make up a word.
Her favorite novel is To Kill a Mockingbird, and her debut YA title, ROAM, pays homage to the timeless novel through the book’s central theme of understanding the people and world around you by trying to understand the world through the lens and experiences of others.
When she’s not writing, Armstrong enjoys following her beloved Oklahoma Sooners Football Team. She maintains a very active presence on social media and enjoys presenting to classrooms on the themes found in her novel, Roam, and the historical significance of The Dust Bowl as described in her novel, The Edge of Nowhere.
Her Website
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