Peace, Locomotion

Peace, Locomotion was written by Jacqueline Woodson. It was published by Putnam Juvenile in 2009. This chapter book is a realistic fiction story. The main theme of this story is dealing with change. It was written for children in middle and high school. The mian character of this story is Lonnie Collins Motion, or Locomotion, as he calls himself. His parents died during a fire in December, and afterwards he and his sister are separated by the foster care system. He deems himself the rememberer so he writes letters to his sister as a chronological story about their lives. He lives with his foster family, Miss Edna and her son Rodney. Miss Edna also has a son Jenkins, who is fighting in a war. Throughout the book Lonnie learns interesting things about himself from his teachers, friends, and family. One day Miss Edna gets the news that her son Jenkins has been hurt. He comes home, but he is missing a leg and has a lot of emotional trauma from the war. Lonnie takes it upon himself to help Jenkins through this struggle. While he helps Jenkins recover Lonnie matures and starts learning about family, and what it means to him. This book is excellent for middle school children, because it teaches the value of family, and that change is inevitable. it's how you deal with change that defines you.