Runaway

By: Wendelin Van Draanen

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

This diary of a runaway girl and her search for a home celebrates hope, resilience, and happy endings as only Wendelin Van Draanen, the author of Flipped and other acclaimed novels, can.

Holly has run away before, but this time she actually gets away - and what at first felt like an escape soon becomes a daily struggle for survival. She is smart and resourceful, and she manages to make it across the country on her own. But how long can this go on? It’s getting harder to avoid the truth - Holly is now homeless.

Runaway is a remarkably uplifting portrait of a girl still young and stubborn and naive enough to believe there’s a better place for her in the world.

“Will grab readers from the first entry.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Holly’s lively self lingers in the way the best characters do. Runaway is certainly one of the best young adult books of the year.” (The Sacramento Bee)

©2008 Wendelin Van Draanen (P)2021 Listening Library

Critic reviews

“This is a great book [for] young teens.... Van Draanen has shown great versatility in adding another dimension to her already respected body of work.” (School Library Journal)

“The ending of this taut, powerful story seems possible and deeply hopeful.” (Booklist)

“Readers will be drawn to Holly as she shifts between her search for a safe place to live, her anger at the foster care system and her reflections on the circumstances that led up to her mother's overdose.” (Publishers Weekly)

Greatest Audiobook of All Time

My favorite book is now on Audible. The narrator was PERFECTLY casted. 12/10 AMAZING

Forever my favorite book

The date the book starts on is my birthday so that always resonated with me and made me remember this book, i’ve never been homeless or in foster care but I often found myself relating to Holly for some reason, the storyline is intriguing and I enjoy the style of this book, i’m ready to read for the fifth time lol

Finally!!! We get Holly‘s backstory

When I first started reading the Sammy Keyes series I loved it. I read every single book. And when I read Sammy keys and the sisters of Mercy and Holly was introduced I got really curious. What was Holly‘s backstory? Overtime though Holly kept showing up in the books as one of Sammy‘s best friends, and I kind of got used to her so I kind of forgot all about how she was introduced. The thought of Holly having a backstory kind of just faded in my mind until I basically forgot about my curiosity.
When I went on Audible and I saw this everything came back. I knew I had to listen to this book, and I don’t regret a single second of that decision. I absolutely love this book. If I had known about it sooner I totally would’ve read it by now.
I would also just like to say that the narrator was excellent. Emma Galvin was the perfect choice to narrate this book. She was able to capture and portray Holly‘s emotions so well. I love listening to narrators who can really bring a story to life.

Not it

I love this author and all her other books but this one was just sad and not a good read until about the very very end so it was mid

Not a true depiction of foster care

RUNAWAY feeds into the belief that foster care is a bad system filled with abusive pedophiles who lock kids in laundry rooms and make them urinate in buckets as well as social workers who don’t believe kids. While there are some inadequate placements for kids and overworked social workers, there are plenty of loving homes and caring workers.

I’m curious who the target audience is for this book. The protagonist is twelve years old, middle grade where most readers won’t be familiar with foster care. RUNAWAY is a terrible introduction to the system with the potential to stigmatize foster kids and make some children believe staying in an abusive home would be preferable.

For me, an adult reading the story, I found Holly’s journey both tragic and uplifting, though not realistic. I interned in a foster care agency, I’ve worked with abused and neglected kids and RUNAWAY is more a story written by someone who doesn’t understand the topic.

People can’t just take in a homeless kid and not tell authorities. The child needs a birth certificate and immunization record to enter school etc.