Gone from Home

Angela Johnson, whose Toning the Sweep won the Coretta Scott King Award in 1994, once again proves her finesse at capturing the voices of youth and the struggles they face in the 12 poignant, exquisitely crafted short takes constituting Gone from Home. Teens especially will recognize and appreciate Johnson's subtle nods to their intelligence and depth. "It's funny when you see people with bald heads. Most of us think fashion. I guess at fourteen you shouldn't be thinking cancer and dying. Dying and cancer." In "Starr," a motherless girl bonds with her eccentric, lip-ring-sporting, bald baby sitter, and must learn how to cope when she loses her outrageous new mentor to a fatal disease. In "Barns," Walter, a teenage boy whose young cousin was killed in a drive-by shooting, now spends his time sketching and thinking about the silence of farm buildings ("monuments to a time that would never be again"). Although many of these lovely stories portray young people dealing with loss and abandonment, Johnson's characters are able to find a circle of peace amid the pressure and pain of urban life: "Five in the morning looks like the moon, like nowhere I've ever been. Even the streets look clean. It's so quiet... like the first snow before everybody walks on it and the cars drive through. Pure and soft." (Ages 12 and older) --Brangien Davis