From Deborah Ellis, the bestselling author of Sit and Step, comes a new short story collection about the moments when the adult world disappoints, and it's time to pick up ... and Go.

Brodie's parents and brother expect him to step up for Team Family, even when Team Family has no intention of returning the favor. Joanie is left to take a city bus for the first time with her impossibly cranky grandmother and learns to stand up for what she wants. Alone in a foreign country, without money, shelter or papers, Liberi steals an expensive purse from a tourist and then figures out what to do with his feelings of guilt. Bastien, the foster kid no one wants, discovers his own inner strength when a wildfire ravages the town. And Kelsey and his brother find themselves robbing graves in the middle of the night, but for the best possible reason.

When the grownups turn their backs, the kids in these stories find a way to go forward. Sometimes it takes a little magical thinking. Sometimes a small act of bravery. Sometimes extending a hand to someone else. But always a realization that there is somewhere to go, if you pay attention, take action and refuse to give in to the dark.

Key Text Features

biographical information

epigraph

short stories

Correlates to the Common Core States Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5

Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6

Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

About the Author
DEBORAH ELLIS is the author of The Breadwinner, which has been published in 30 languages and made into an Oscar-nominated film. She has won the Governor General's Award, the Middle East Book Award, the Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award. A recipient of the Order of Canada, Deborah has donated more than $2 million in royalties to organizations such as Right to Learn Afghanistan, Mental Health Without Borders and UNHCR. She lives in Simcoe, Ontario.

Reviews

"A slam dunk." - School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

"Ellis conveys the belief that there's a way out of the darkness, if you choose to reach for it." - Kirkus Reviews

"Readers will be compelled to engage in the lives of these children and to imagine what their futures may hold." - Calgary Herald

Book Information
ISBN 9781779461339
Author Deborah Ellis
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Groundwood Books Ltd ,Canada
Publisher Groundwood Books Ltd ,Canada