Weekend Picks for October 17th

Julie Hoffman

Mid-October is here and we have another great recommendation for our YA Lit readers: Road Home by Rex Ogle is contributor Julie Hoffman's Weekend Pick. 

Julie Hoffman is an educator with Springfield Public Schools and an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Springfield. Her research interests include urban education, empathy, social and emotional learning, young adult and children’s literature.  She believes that young adult literature and poetry can be a message of perseverance and hope and believes that we thrive when we invest in ourselves and others.

Road Home by Rex Ogle

“I spent all day hiding in the shade, in my head, trying to figure out what to do. But my thoughts go in circles. Thinking is starting to seem hard. Everything is starting to seem too hard. 
Too impossible.” (p. 141)

In his young adult memoir, Rex Ogle writes about his experiences, including homelessness and hopelessness.  It is an honest reflection of what it is like to be a teenager who feels abandoned by family.  Especially, as a young man who is rejected for remaining true to himself and his identity. As a young gay man, Rex knew that he could not and would not compromise, hide, or deny who he was. 

After his father kicked him out of the house, Rex left with his truck, some clothing, and the little bit of money he had and headed toward New Orleans to connect with a man he had met the summer before. Rex Ogle goes into the deep and lonely places that he experienced as a 17 year old who is looking for a place to call home. As he searches  for places to stay, he navigates relationships with people who sometimes have something to offer, and sometimes have something to take. Rex taps into his own survival skills and resilience while learning when to compromise for a sense of safety, and when his safety is not to be compromised. ​

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Not only is this memoir a testimony of the hardships  youth must deal with when they are stuck on the streets without  a home or a sense of family, but it is also a testimony of the healing that Rex found along the way. His writing is really a story of resilience and hope, which is what he shares in everything that he speaks and writes. 

For readers who have dealt with hardships like lack of acceptance from family members, lack of resources, homelessness, running away, and unhealthy romantic relationships, this book will serve as a mirror— reflecting the same kind of fortitude that the reader has.  For readers who are not familiar with some of the tough topics Rex explorers, this book can serve as a window— a way to step into the shoes of someone who had to deal with many painful hardships and still found a way “home.”

This book can also begin a conversation about what the word home means. Is it a place? Is it a person? Is it a feeling? Is it a state of being? Take a journey with Rex Ogle and find your own road home.

Rex Ogle