I absolutely love Peace, Locomotion. Jacqueline Woodson is a talented, talented writer and I am in love with her words. She is one of the few authors that make you laugh and cry at the same time, her words just ring with meaning and pull you by your heart. Really this would make the Doublescoop cut for our blog Woodson is that good, but alas if I want to post this before the end of next year I’m doing this one solo. I have read a few of her other books – including Show Way and Miracles Boys, which are on my list of favorites as well.

Lonnie lives with a foster family and his younger sister lives with another foster family as her foster mother doesn’t want a boy. He considers himself the keeper of the family memories because they lost their parents in the fire, and to do so her writes a series of letters to his sister to keep their memories alive especially while they apart. He plans to give her the letters when she turns 18.

I highly recommend Peace, Locomotion to anyone who loves a good coming of age story in the post 9/11 world. I also think this would be a good book to use in a middle school and plan to recommend it to my school’s librarian.

Jacqueline Woodson’s Website.