by: Jackie French Koller

Review done by:

Erin L.

Grade 6

Van Antwerp Middle School

Niskayuna, NY

A very good book I read and enjoyed a lot was A Place to Call Home.

This book is about a girl named Anna, her younger sister Mandy, and another younger brother Casey. Anna and her sister and brotherís mom has problems - drinking problems. As Anna walks into her home driveway one day after school, she can hear her baby brother sobbing. Her momís not home. Sheís ran away again and left her seven month old baby at home.

This is where the book starts. This is not the first time this has happened. Although her mother has always come back,sheisnít going to this time. Anna must now take care of her younger siblings with only some help of a friend named Nate. She must keep her motherís disappearance a secret, or it could mean Anna loses Mandy and Casey. This is the main plot of the story.

This story also had some action in it. For instance, when Anna has an accident and falls on the bus, the author explains how she falls and how she sees her hands falling to the ground. One of the major characters was Mel. He owned a convenience store where Anna shopped. He was rude to her, and she was rude to him. They did not like each other. Later in the book, Mel did one of the nicest things anyone ever did for Anna, and she learns that everyone can be nice if they want too.

This book also always held my interest. Between when Annaís mom leaves, until the end of the book, everything was interesting. For example,

when Anna went to Nateís house for some help from him, she kept going on and on about how everyoneís life is perfect except for herís. Then Nate tells her something horrifying that happened to him when he was nine. This part was interesting because Anna kept going on and on about how everything was wrong for her. Then,she realizes that everyoneís life is not fair in one way or another.

I chose this book for one of my favorites because it seemed so realistic. Some books you canít picture whatís going on, and that tends to get annoying. It was also very well written. If a line was one you could say without any thought to it, you just said it, the author would change it so it made sense.

I would definitely recommend this because you donít always know what will happen. So it is always interesting.