Now 2023 Previous Articles Road Essays Road Reviews Author Black Authors Title Source Age Genre Series Format Inclusivity LGBTA Portfolio Artwork WIP

Recent posts


Month in review

Reviews
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Imbalance, Part One by Faith Erin Hicks
The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena
The Big Necessity by Rose George
The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
Brave by Svetlana Chmakova
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
Delicious in Dungeon Volume 2 by Ryoko Kui
Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon
The Fever King by Victoria Lee
The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht
Galloglass by Scarlett Thomas
The Ghost of Grey Fox Inn by Carolyn Keene
Giant Days, Volume 9 by John Allison
The Great Unknowable End by Kathryn Ormsbee
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Little Guys by Vera Brosgol
Make-A-Saurus: My Life with Raptors and Other Dinosaurs by Brian Cooley
Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
Miss Communication by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
Murder Lo Mein by Vivien Chien
Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh
A Question of Holmes by Brittany Cavallaro
Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck
The Tiger in the House by Carl Van Vechten
To Brie or Not To Brie by Avery Aames
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
The Unteachables by Gordon Korman
We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Where the Heart Is by Jo Knowles
Wild Blues by Beth Kephart

Miscellaneous
April 2019 Sources
April 2019 Summary
The illusion of organized reading
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (May 06)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (May 13)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (May 20)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (May 27)
May is looking a lot like mid March

Road Essays
CCFF66: Siblings going offroad to utopia

CCFF33: siblings to utopia along the Blue Highway: a brief look at the first seven seasons of Supernatural

CCFF00: Siblings to Utopia via the interstate

CCCCFF: Siblings through the cornfield to uhoria

CCCCCC: Siblings through the maze to uhoria

Road Narrative Update for April 2019

Previous month



Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

Reading Challenges

Canadian Book Challenge: 2023-2024

Beat the Backlist 2023

Artwork
Chicken Art



Privacy policy

This blog does not collect personal data. It doesn't set cookies. Email addresses are used to respond to comments or "contact us" messages and then deleted.


Nowhere Boy: 05/06/19

Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh is a contemporary middle grade novel set primarily in Brussels. It's told in alternating points of view: Ahmed's and Mike's. Ahmed has escaped from Syria with his father only to be separated and forced to go on his own where he eventually ends up in Brussels. Mike is an American now living in Brussels because his parents have moved there for work.

The intersection of these two plots is the house Mike's family is renting. Ahmed has found a way into the basement which has been converted to include a bathroom, a couch to sleep on, and it's close to the kitchen by way of a short flight of stairs.

Early one I expected the two boys' stories to stay separate minus the shared space. Mike though does discover Ahmed and they become friends. While Ahmed is technically in Belgium illegally, Mike takes the necessary risks to help him: getting him into school, getting him an ID, and ultimately helping him find his father.

Now although this novel is set in Europe, the author is American, and it uses elements of the road narrative to fit into the spectrum. For the traveler piece, Ahmed and Mike for their collaboration, fit into the marginalized traveler status (66). Ahmed is marginalized as a refugee separated from his father. Mike is marginalized as a visa holder who doesn't speak anything beyond English. The destination throughout the book is home (66). First it's the house that the two are sharing, and later it is in the journey for a reunion. The journey to the reunion is done via train, which like the interstate is the most straightforward, safest way to travel (00). Of course traveling without parents, with little in the way of language, and with dubious IDs, adds danger to the route.

All together, this novel in terms of the road narrative spectrum is a tale of marginalized travelers taking a railroad to find home.

Four stars

Comments (0)


Lab puppy
Name:
Email (won't be posted):
Blog URL:
Comment:

Twitter Tumblr Mastadon Flickr Facebook Facebook Contact me

1997-2023 Sarah Sammis