Disappear Home

January 12, 2015
Set in 1970, Hurwitz’s nerve-wracking YA novel opens with a family of three running from Sweet Earth Farm, the commune that has been their home for the past five years. Fourteen-year-old Shoshanna Ebersole, mother Ella, and younger sister Mara steal the commune’s station wagon and flee from Oregon to their former home of San Francisco to escape the girls’ abusive father, Adam, the commune’s founder, whose “philosophy of political anarchy, free love, and rampant drug use” morphed into a violent reality. When they arrive back in the Haight, Judy, an old friend of Ella’s, sets them up with jobs on a farm in nearby Half Moon Bay where Shoshanna and Mara begin to feel a measure of safety and security. Hurwitz (the Adventures of Riley series) establishes a strong sense of tension that never lets up—the question of whether Adam will find the runaways looms over the story. While the ending resolves the girls’ troubles rather neatly, Shoshanna’s resilience is on full display as she tries to keep both her mother and sister safe. Ages 12–up. Agency: International Transactions.

March 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-When 14-year-old Shoshanna's physically abusive father offers his daughter's body to a fellow member of the violent, drug-dependent commune Sweet Earth Farm, Shoshie's mother, Ella, secretly flees with Shosie and her six-year-old sister, Mara. It's 1970, and with flower power waning, hippies Ella, Shoshie, and Mara can't find their way to a new home in the foreign outside world. Enter Judy, a young hippie who has found a way to balance her ideals with practicality. Together they form a new kind of family with some added help from old and new friends. While Shoshie remains terrified of her father finding them, she also begins to enjoy feeling safe on the rural California farm where they have settled. When Ella's cancer diagnosis upsets the good vibes of their new life, Shoshie draws on her newfound strength to carry on despite challenges and tragedy. While this pat ending may leave some readers dissatisfied, others may be relieved. Despite the emotional and mental stress caused by the threat of Shoshie's father potentially returning, nothing particularly sinister actually takes place. The historical dialogue is so "groovy" it can feel farcical; however, Hurwitz's descriptions of California and progressive cultural movements create a vivid and accurate landscape. VERDICT A good purchase for teens who dig stories about cults and the hippie movement.-Mariah Manley, Medway Public Library, MA

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January 15, 2015
A teen growing up in an out-of-control hippie commune in Oregon in 1970 discovers what it's like to have a stable home when she's transplanted to rural California.After months of conspiring, 14-year-old Shoshanna, her younger sister, and their mother, Ella, flee "the hunger, the violence, the drugs, [and] the chaos" of Sweet Earth Farm, where they've lived like prisoners for five years. Desperate to escape an abusive, addicted father, they "disappear" to San Francisco, arriving penniless and homeless in Haight-Ashbury, where Ella reconnects with her friend Judy, who moves them to a rural, coastal town where a kind man gives them a place to live in exchange for working on his farm. Afraid her father will follow and knowing she'll "have to work hard to keep her mother going," Shoshie flourishes with a safe place, nourishing food and earth-mother Judy's care. When Ella becomes gravely ill, once again Shoshie's future's uncertain, until she realizes she has a new community supporting her. Details of the free-spirited, hippie lifestyle and attitudes provide authentic cultural context for Shoshie's troubling, urgent journey from desperate victim to hopeful survivor. This realistic debut inspires with a grounded heroine who comes of age as she "disappears home." (Historical fiction. 12-15)

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February 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 Shoshanna, her mother, Ella, and her little sister, Mara, live precarious lives at Sweet Earth Farm, where her parents have founded a chaos-ridden commune. The cruel behavior of the girls' father, Adam, drives Ella to steal the commune's car and get help from an old friend. The family, meanwhile, is terrifiedthere is nothing worse than an angry Adam. Hurwitz's debut novel is full of great sensory details about life in 1970, from Ella's chain-smoking to the hippie funk of the commune and the feel of harvesting vegetables on the farm where they seek shelter. Shoshanna and Mara are wizened by what they have witnessed and haunted by drug rages, orgies, and casual violence. This is no tale of hippie paradise: Hurwitz tells it like it was and doesn't shy away from the bitter portions of the peace-and-love revolution. The threat of Adam's return pulls the story taut and drives the narrative relentlessly forward. A bittersweet coming-of-age story buoyed by Shoshanna's small triumphs as she learns to stand tall despite the circumstances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)