Harbor Me

by Jacqueline Woodson

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories.

It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat--by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for "A Room to Talk"), they discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them--everything from Esteban's father's deportation and Haley's father's incarceration to Amari's fears of racial profiling and Ashton's adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.

• ISBN10: 0525518347
• ISBN13: 9780525518341
• Publish Date: 28 August 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Nancy Paulsen Books
• Edition: International edition
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 192
• Language: English

Reviews

[bestmessever]

Jacqueline Woodson is quickly becoming a favorite author. Her books just speak to my soul. I swear I could feel these characters breath that's how real they felt.

"I will harbor you." *literal chills*

[readingwithwrin]

"That even though we’re here now, they were here first. I think this is what the world is—stories on top of stories, all the way back to the beginning of time."

Harbor me follows 6 different kids from the ages of 11-12 all with different ethnic backgrounds and the struggles they face over a school year. We get to see this all unfold at school when the kids are left alone by their teacher to be able to talk and discuss things happening to them without adult supervision. While this might sound risky its also something that worked out well and I loved how they were able to keep order in the room and things never got out of hand.

All of the children are dealing with something either because of things that have happened to them, or because of things that have happened to there parents. We slowly learn each of there stories as the school year goes on and different things happen. Each of their stories is very important and relevant to the events that are happening today to young people.
Their stories go from a parent getting out of prison and adjusting to them being back in their lives, to another child dealing with a parent getting sent back to their nation of origin.

"I want you to know that we’re all flawed, he said. We all have those days we just don’t want to show up. Days we just want to forget the world. Doesn’t make us bad people. Just makes us people. And time moves as it moves. In a month, this moment won’t be anything."

Overall I loved this story. The topics in this book are very real and I think it’s important for kids to not only feel represented like I’m sure many will be with this book but for others to see and feel what others are going through. I highly recommend this book to people of all ages because of how relevant this book is to everything happening in the country today.