In this post, we feature author Janet Fox, whose recent, acclaimed titles include The Artifact Hunters. You can hear her speak about her new novel, Carry Me Home, and try her “invitation to imagine” activity. You’ll also find other resources to explore. Thanks for joining us, and let us know what you think in the comments below!
Carry Me Home
- Written by Janet Fox
- Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
- Release date: August 24, 2021
Twelve-year-old Lulu and her younger sister, Serena, have a secret. Daddy always says, “It’s best if we keep it to ourselves,” and so they have. But hiding your past is one thing. Hiding where you live—and that your Daddy has gone missing—is harder. At first Lulu isn’t worried. Daddy has gone away once before, and he came back. But as the days add up, with no sign of Daddy, Lulu struggles to take care of all the responsibilities they used to manage as a family. Lulu knows that all it takes is one slip-up for their secret to come spilling out, for the sisters to be separated, and for all the good things that have been happening in school to be lost. She must learn to trust her new friends and community to save those she loves and find her true home.
From Carry Me Home, written by Janet Fox.
The day Lulu’s daddy disappeared was, so far, the coldest morning of the year.
Read a longer excerpt from Carry Me Home, written by Janet Fox.
Explore Carry Me Home
Listen to Janet Fox talking with TeachingBooks about creating Carry Me Home. You can click the player below or experience the recording on TeachingBooks, where you can read along as you listen, and also translate the text to another language.
- Listen to author Janet Fox pronounce her name.
- Enjoy a video book reading of Carry Me Home.
- Watch a video book trailer for Carry Me Home.
- Explore TeachingBooks’ collection of activities and resources for Carry Me Home.
Invitation to Imagine
TeachingBooks asks each author or illustrator on our Virtual Book Tour to share a writing prompt, a drawing exercise, or just an interesting question to spark curiosity and creativity. Enjoy the following activity contributed by Janet Fox.
Imagination Activity with Janet Fox
Imagine that you’ve just learned that someone in your class—someone your age, someone you don’t know very well—has been living in their car because they don’t have a home. How does that make you feel? Can you think of what you might say or do? Write or draw about your feelings by doing one of the following:
- Write a letter to that person
- Write a fictional story from their point of view
- Write a fictional story about how it makes you feel when you learn about their situation, and what you might do
- Write a letter to the editor of your local paper about what we could all do to help people who have no home
- Draw a picture that brings a happy ending for that person
- Draw a picture of yourself with that person
Finish This Sentence . . . with Janet Fox
As part of our Virtual Book Tour, TeachingBooks asks authors and illustrators to complete short sentence prompts. Enjoy Janet Fox’s response.
“You may not know that I can…”
You may not know that I can describe the amazing creatures that live in the sea at the bottom of the ocean because I’ve made a deep-sea dive in a submersible! I have a degree in marine geology, and I’ve seen bioluminescent creatures floating through the pitch-dark water above the ocean floor. They look like something made up in a fantasy world—pinwheels and stars and spinning tops!
“I hope that my book encourages readers to think about…”
I hope that my book encourages readers to think about not only how it feels to be homeless, but also how it feels when you need to ask for help in a difficult situation. Who can you turn to? Is it hard to ask? If someone asks you for help, what would you say?
Thank you!
To wrap up this Virtual Book Tour, we thank Janet Fox for signing a book for all of us.
More Connections to Janet Foxand Carry Me Home
- Discover books like Carry Me Home on TeachingBooks.
- Simon & Schuster’s page about Carry Me Home, by Janet Fox.
- Buy Carry Me Home, by Janet Fox.
- Janet Fox on Twitter.
Explore all of the titles featured in the TeachingBooks Virtual Book Tour: one link with author interviews, lesson plans, activities, and more!
All text and images are courtesy of Janet Fox and Simon & Schuster and may not be used without expressed written consent.
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