Nowhere to Call Home - Hardcover

DeFelice, Cynthia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374355525 ISBN 13: 9780374355524

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 1999

Synopsis

A Depression-era adventure from a master storyteller

Tramping is for people with nothing to lose and nowhere to call home. Twelve-year-old Frances Elizabeth Barrow thinks that describes her when she clips her hair and, disguised as a boy, "flips" a train west. Left a penniless orphan after her father's bankruptcy and subsequent suicide, Frances is sure that hoboing is better than being sent to live with an unfamiliar aunt in Chicago. On the drag, she meets Stewpot, a fifteen-year-old boy who teaches her the ropes -- everything from the jargon to the signs the hoboes leave for one another, to how to outwit the cops. She also learns that being "free" exacts a price, and comes to appreciate her old life. Cynthia DeFelice captures the despair -- and the hope -- of individuals facing the Great Depression in this story about a spirited young heroine filled with resolve after all she has experienced.

About this title

About the Author

Cynthia DeFelice lives in Geneva, New York.

From Publishers Weekly

This realistic rags-to-riches (and back again) tale set in the time of Hoovervilles and bread lines follows a girl who takes up a hobos life. Sheltered, wealthy Frances Barrows world is thrown into chaos when her fathers factories go bankrupt and he kills himself during the Depression. When she hears a servants plan to become a hobo and ride the rails, 12-year-old Frances sees a way out of being sent from her home in Philadelphia to live with her stern aunt in Chicago. She gives the slip to the adults, cashes in her train ticket and disguises herself as a boy, leaping into a dark boxcar headed for Pittsburgh and freedom. DeFelice (Clever Crow) convincingly depicts Francess transformation to boy vagabond Frankie Blue, as well as the heroines blossoming friendship with Stewpot, the seasoned 15-year-old who takes her under his wing right from the get-go. By disguising Frances as a boy, the author cleverly evades graphic details of the dangers to frills, or girls on the move (alluding to the dangers through a few cameo appearances by other down-and-out females). Details of the Depression get more weight than character development; while readers will have a clear sense of the destitution that characterized the era, they may have less of a sense of who Frances is. Nonetheless, they will likely be relieved that she finally decides to leave a life on the streets for the safety of her aunts home. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0374355525
• ISBN 13: 9780374355524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208