Runaround

by Helen Hemphill

Book Overview

In this Booklist Top Ten Romance Book, everything eleven-year-old Sassy knows about love comes from the romance magazines. But now that she has her eyes on her handsome neighbor, Boon, she wants more... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932425837
• ISBN13: 9781932425833
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Front Street, Incorporated
• Length: 117 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 6 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 1 to 4

Customer Reviews

Scout Finch with a 'tude

Helen Hemphill's RUNAROUND is the story of a girl trying to find her way to the world of adulthood. She doesn't have much help: her father is apparently grieving the death of his adored wife, her pretty older sister is too caught up in herself to pay much attention to the bratty pre-teen, and their housekeeper has her hands full. The well-named Sassy has learned that her sharp tongue (and her screaming skills) get results, and with few role models to show her other ways of navigating the perilous waters of adolescence, she relies on them and her fierce temper. It seems to work for a while, until she reveals her crush on local charmer Boon Chisholm to Boon himself. Sassy reveals her hurt and vulnerable side despite herself, and the resolution satisfies the reader who has come to care for her. Hemphill avoids cliche and easy answers, making Sassy a character readers will understand and empathize with--even while being glad that they don't have to deal with her in real life! Highly recommended.

Runaround is spot on

Not since Carson McCullers MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, have I read a book that so accurately portrays that foggy zone between childhood and adolescence as well as Helen Hemphill's RUNAROUND. As I read about eleven year old Sassy, my own eleven year old self arose from the past and shouted "Yes!" I could feel my hair crinkle into a permanent "bad hair day", smell the Stridex pads that were a perpetual part of my teen years, and squirm with the discomfort of my first "young lady foundation garments." With on the brink of teenhood, Sassy views the teen years and the hoped-for-accompanying romance as a foreign land, whose customs and habits must be studied...by watching teens and reading her guide book, LOVE CONFESSIONS. Don't let the quick pace and page turning prose fool you into thinking that this is "junior chick lit." Searching for identity, revenge and the meaning of TRUE love, are all part of this compulsively readable book.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Sassy has a crush on Boon Chisholm. Sure, Sassy's much younger than Boon, and she's a big tomboy, and this is her first crush, but Sassy is very confident. She knows Boon loves her; she just has to help him figure it out. Then they can live happily ever after together, not to mention make Sassy's older sister, Lula, jealous. Unfortunately, Sassy doesn't know much about love. In fact, she knows pretty much nothing about love. So she'll just have to find out. Sassy's mama died when she was a baby, so that's one less person to ask. Daddy hardly talks to her at all, so that's not an option. Miss Dallas, their nanny/housekeeper, is an old maid - what can she know about love? The only good source is Lula. Lula has a bunch of boyfriends, and plenty of kissing experience. Too bad they can't seem to keep from beating on each other long enough to have a real conversation. Sassy might just have to figure this one out on her own. Sassy's explorations of love and self are both painful and funny to experience. These are some hard things to learn, when no one seems to want to or be able to help. Sassy learns that love comes in lots of different forms and expressions. And sometimes, more often than anyone would like, love and heartbreak come hand in hand. Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman

A Jewel of a Story!

Miss Dallas takes care of 11-year-old Sassy and her beautiful older sister Lula. She runs their household and is a sort of mother figure as their own mother died of cancer soon after Sassy was born, or so the family story goes. Sassy reads 'Love Confessions' magazine. Her father is reserved and never talks about their mother so she questions Miss Dallas about romance and her parents' relationship. "You're in love with love," Miss Dallas tells her,and indeed, that is the heart of this jewel of a story. Snips of advice and passages from Sassy's magazines begin many of the chapters. When Sassy encounters handsome Boon Chisholm at the grocery store she develops a head over heels crush on him even though he is much older than her and is from the wrong side of the social tracks. There are some wonderfully funny and painful moments as Sassy and Lula learn about guys and life. You do not want to get into a haircut fight with these sisters. Hemphill evokes the time, 1964, and place, Falls of Rough, Kentucky, beautifully. Cherry Cokes-to-go are served in paper cups, screen doors slam and Elvis sings on the record player. The details are part of the story and never forced. The cover art is an old Benday dot style, romance comic illustration. Sassy and Lula, their father, Miss Dallas and even the feckless Boon are characters the reader cares about. In their own way all the players in this story are sorting out their lives and hoping for relationships that give meaning to life. (It is nice to see a story with a loving father too.) I think middle schoolers will find much that resonates in this sweet sweet story.

Read This Runaround

Set in the 1960s, RUNAROUND is the story of Sassy, an aptly-named young girl growing up in Kentucky. Sassy's got a tendency to speak her mind, especially when fighting with her beautiful older sister Lula, and she will kick and scream if she doesn't get her way. Even though she's an opinionated spitfire, she'll never admit how lonely she feels. "I just want to know about boys! I don't have a mama to talk to! How else am I going to find out things if nobody tells me?" Sassy wants to know what love truly is, but who can she talk to about boys? Her mama passed away when she was just a baby, and she hasn't any close friends. The two adults in her life are her daddy, who is hard-working but sometimes gruff, and Miss Dallas, who looks after the girls while their father is working. She sets her eye on Boon, a boy closer to her sister's age, determined to make him her boyfriend. After all, he did smile and tell her: "You got a good heart, Sassy girl." Due out in March and geared towards ages 8 and up, RUNAROUND by Helen Hemphill will draw readers in from page one. I could see Sassy running around that little town of hers as clear as day. She reminded me a great deal of Addie, the leading little lady from the novel Addie Pray, better known as the film Paper Moon. Sassy's spunk may get her in trouble with Daddy, but it also will win the hearts of readers. What an absolutely adorable story!