REVIEW for Tween Hobo Off the Rails

Thank you to the wonderful people at Simon & Schuster Canada for sending me a copy of this book.

TITLE:                   Tween Hobo Off the Rails

AUTHORS:            Alena Smith and Illustrated by Kate Harmer

GENRE:                 Humor

RATING:                

I truly wasn't sure what to expect when I started to read this book - all I could see was an 12 year old girl, on the road, with her "little hobo bag" hanging on her shoulder.

This book features a young girl who "lives" by the Hobo code and decides to "see the world" or at least to get closer to Justin Bieber with the help of her glitter pens, a desire to be free and a healthy dose of naivety, she details her experiences through Twitter Feeds.  She meets interesting people and looks at the happy, positive side of life.

I love that the author does a great job of showing the innocence of youth which, unfortunately, is often missing these days.  It was a joy to read her entries and to go "on the road' with her.  This is not the "On the Road" you would read from Kirouac let me tell you.

However, as an adult, living in 2014, I found myself looking at the "reality" of life and feeling a tad horrified that this girl was "out there" with parents that did not seem to be freaking out as much as they should be that their child is experiencing life.

I felt myself torn between the world of innocence this novel portrays mixed in with the reality of today's living.  I guess this describes well the saying:

"When I was a child I spoke as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things." I Cor. xiii. 11.