summer reading questions

Alena Stoots
Can’t Get There From Here Todd Strasser
1. The main character of this book is a young teenage girl that goes by Maybe. Maybe is not her real name, it is her street name. Towards the end of the story she announces her given birth name is Jesse. Maybe stays very strong throughout the entire book and never gives up on her friends or herself. She was born with an unusual skin condition, and finds a helpful librarian who also shares the same uneven pigment. She cares a lot for her friends/ tribe of other homeless teenagers, and she follows her heart and decides that it’s best to finally get help with her life towards the end of the book.

2. In the beginning of this story, Maybe and her friends find a dead man who went by Country Club. None of them completely understood why he died, but they all join together afterwards and start talking about how they ended up on the street, how old they are and where they came from. Towards the middle of the story is where Maybe meets the Liberian named Anthony when she and Rainbow tried to clean off in a handicapped stall of a public library restroom but get caught by two police men. They were forced to clean up after themselves while they were still naked and damp from washing their bodies in the sinks. Also, Maybe and a couple of her friends dress up and go to a club in New York City and she finds herself feeling sick and dizzy, she was offered to have a place to sleep at a random man’s house her friend Jewel requested, only if she cleaned up his house for him, but he eventually kicked her out. At the end of the story is when Maybe helps out her friend Tears, who is only twelve years old to get off the street and go back home to her grandparents since her stepfather abused her. Maybe realizes that there are a lot of ways to live, and a lot of different places to live too, and that she too can get off the streets and have a normal life like everyone else if she tries hard enough.

3. I think what the author is trying to say about life throughout the story is that if you or someone you know is going through a rough time and doesn’t have anywhere to go it doesn’t hurt to help one another and also if no one ever does help you it’s not too late to start helping yourself.

4. When Tears finally goes home to her grandparents, she, Anthony and Maybe are all affected by it. Tears is now off the streets and will be taken care of from now on. Anthony was the one who drove Maybe and Tears all the way to her grandparents, and she realizes it’s time for Maybe to get off the streets too. Maybe is affected by this because she now sees that if Tears can get cleaned up and go home to live safely then she can too, even if it means going back to the Youth Housing Project for now.

5. Two specific events that happened that made the book’s social issues seem real and important was when Rainbow was taken away from Maybe by officer Ryan when she was sick and later on she found out Rainbow had died, and the police found her body in a nearby river. Another event was when Maybe and Anthony feared that Tears was hit by a truck and died, because the officer’s description of the girl matched Tears, but turned out to be someone else. The author makes a big issue immediate by showing the reader that she is homeless from the very beginning. The author makes the issue personal because he describes the emotional challenges that the main character goes through.