Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson Buy the Book • Goodreads
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.
We all live on this earth together and we will only be here this one time. It is imperative that we teach our young people to be kind to one another because you never know what another person is battling in their life. If they learn to be kind now, they will be kind adults and their kindness and empathy can change the world. Jackie Woodson sheds so much light on so many real issues and human struggles that our children are facing today. From deportation to racial profiling and so much in between, we see life through six kids struggling to make it through each day. This book is real, it is life, it is a masterpiece. Thank you Jackie, you are always such a strong powerful voice in Children’s Literature.
