Bauer, Joan. (2012). Almost Home. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Lexile Level: 590L
DRA: 70
AR: 3.3
Summary: Sugar Mae Cole is in the 6th grade, she is very mature for her age, a street smart, and more mature than her father and mother. Most of the time she has to act older than she is to keep her mom from failing and loosing the house. She can only do so much as such a young age, when she can do no more she finds herself homeless living in a shelter and a foster home. She keeps in touch with her teacher Mr. B who advices her to write about her life. Sugar is to busy surviving to have fun, but poetry helps her cope with being homeless and hungry. She can't wait for the time when she can stop being responsible for her mother and her mother be responsible for her.
Reader Response: What I like most about this book is that it mixes realistic fiction with poetry. Joan Bauer writes the story in 1st person and also adds entire poems written by the character, Sugar Mae Cole. The story hits on the subject of poverty and homelessness, but the thrive for survival and making a second chance for oneself. This story can be use as a text to text connection with Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate who teaches similar themes.
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