Lena by Jacqueline Woodson

Woodson, J.  (1999).  Lena.  New York:  Speak

Thirteen-year-old Lena and her younger sister, Dion, have just lost their mother and are getting away from their abusive father.  Will they find a place where they belong?  A place to call home?

This book refers to Lena.  After their mother dies of cancer, Lena decides that she and her sister have to get away from their abusive father in Chauncy, Ohio and find their mother's people in Kentucky.  She is sure that they will take them in, after all they're family, and family sticks together.  Lena had been planning this for quite some time, so she was prepared with supplies they would need while on the road.  Her plan is to make it to Kentucky by walking and hitching rides.  The girls have cut their hair short so that they can look like boys when they're riding with men.  While on the road, they've met some interesting people, some nicer than others, and some willing to help by offering them money for their journey or meals.  Their story is that they're going to meet their mother, who has just had a baby, at the hospital, but they're walking because somehow the money their mother sent got lost.  The girls have their stories straight, but are getting tired of and feeling bad about constantly lying.  It isn't until a woman, Miz Lily, tells them to get in her car that someone (Miz Lily) starts to notice that something isn't right about two young girls hitchhiking their way to Kentucky in the middle of winter.  The girls also get mixed up with their story, which causes Miz Lily to further suspect that there's more to the girls' story than they're letting on.  Miz Lily offers them food and a warm place to stay, and they gladly accept.  While at Miz Lily's Lena starts to think about their situation.  She is starting to miss Ohio.  Not her dad, but Marie, her best friend, and Ms. Cory, her teacher at her middle school.  They both cared about her.  She starts to think about her mother's people.  She doesn't know where she'd even begin to start looking for them.  Lena also thinks about how they didn't attend her mother's funeral, send a card, or answer the social worker's call when the girls were separated.  Would they really be willing to take them in?  Lena isn't so sure anymore.  Missing Marie, she calls her and discovers that Marie misses her terribly and that Lena's dad left and is nowhere to be found.  Marie's father is the one who is trying desperately to find the girls and make sure they're OK.  Now Lena knows that she has to return to Ohio.  Marie tells Lena to stay where she's at and that she will talk to her dad and call her the next day.  In the morning, Lena is anxiously waiting for Marie's call, but never gets it, so Miz Lily takes Lena and Dion to the hospital (where her friend happens to work) so that they can get to their mom.  Later Miz Lily returns to the hospital, where her suspicions that the girls are still there are confirmed.  She spoke to Marie and worked things out with Marie's father to have him pick up the girls at the airport in Ohio and get the ball rolling to have Lena and Dion stay with them.  Lena can't believe that after all she and Dion have been through, they'll have a home again.

This was a very heartwarming story.  I'm not one to cry, but there were some tears stinging my eyes.  The story was very well-written in the dialect of the area and the descriptions of the cities the girls traveled through were very easy to picture.  Lena seemed so brave and selfless...wanting what was best for her sister and always looking after her.  I kept thinking that their mother's people might not take them in and then they'd be right where they started:  without a home to feel safe in and no one to love them.  When they met Miz Lily, I thought she'd figure things out (she kind of did) and take them in (which she said she would if things didn't work out with Marie and her father).  I just wanted them to get what they deserved after all they'd been through, and they finally did.  I think students would be able to empathize with the girls and root for them to get the loving home, family, and love they deserve.

Jacqueline Woodson, the author

This is a Newbery Honor book and it won the Margaret A. Edwards Award.  It is the sequel to I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This.
You can learn more about Jacqueline Woodson by visiting her website at http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/.  Other books she's written include Behind You, Hush, and If You Come Softly.