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The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai
Cat Got Your Secrets by Julie Chase
Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings by Matt Sewell
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
The Dragon Thief by Zetta Elliott
Final Girl by Michelle Schusterman
Giant Days, Volume 11 by John Allison
Gideon Falls, Volume 3: Stations of the Cross by Jeff Lemire
Guts by Raina Telgemeier
Have You Seen a Giraffe Hat? by Irma Joyce
I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest
A Kingdom for a Stage by Heidi Heilig
Kneaded to Death by Winnie Archer
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
Milo's World: The Land Under the Lake by Richard Marazano and Christophe Ferreira
Murder by Mocha by Cleo Coyle
Now Entering Addamsville by Francesca Zappia
Operatic by Kyo Maclear and Bryon Eggenschwiler
Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao
Over the Moon by Natalie Lloyd
The Phantom Tower by Keir Graff
Posted by John David Anderson
Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger
Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
What Rose Forgot by Nevada Barr

Miscellaneous
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 04)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 11)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 18)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 25)
October 2019 Sources
October 2019 Summary

Road Essays
Road Narrative Update for October 2019

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I Wanna Be Where You Are: 11/15/19

I Wanna Be Where You Are

I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest (2019) reads like a mashup of Everywhere You Want to Be by Christina June (2018) and Pride by Ibi Zoboi.

Chloe Pierce has been taking ballet for most of her young life. She's at the point where it's time to think of her future. She has an opportunity to audition for a ballet conservatory associated with an all Black dance company. It is the literal dream school for her. But her mother doesn't want her living in New York.

The auditions are happening in a variety of cities during Spring Break. Miracle of miracles: Chloe's mother will be out of town on a cruise with her boyfriend. As she is risk adverse, her leaving for a cruise and trusting her daughter to stay with a friend and her mother is an unheard of boon.

Chloe has her own car. It should be simple. She drives down to Washington DC, does the audition and is home at the end of the day. That's the plan but before she can even put the key into the ignition the handsome boy from across the street asks her to do a favor — drive him and his dog to the train station in DC.

That's the set up for I Wanna Be Where You Are. What should have been a solo long drive and the start of an otherwise boring, home alone, spring break, quickly goes awry.

What could have been a story about an audition and its aftermath, ends up falling into the road narrative spectrum. Chloe and Eli have a history of almost being a couple. Now on the road, they are traveling as a couple (33). In fact, the road trip works to being a potential couple together after a long period where they had fallen out of being friends. The reason behind the fallout is explained through flashbacks.

The destination is the city (00) hosting the audition. For all the other places Chloe and Eli go, the most important destination is the audition. The destination is a way for Chloe to get over her fears and to assert some of her own will on her future.

The route taken is primarily the interstate (00). One of the big detours that extends the length of the journey in terms of time and miles happens on a major highway. In this regard, the road itself is more an agent of narrative change than it is in many road narratives.

All together I Wanna Be Where You Are is the tale of a couple going to the city to plan their futures via the interstate.

Five stars

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