Towards the end of the novel Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor decides to run away from her family and go back to her uncle’s house. There has been so many things that have led up to make her want to do this and I’m so happy that she finally did. So many kids in America face struggles of having a poor life at home and usually there’s not many choices the child has to better themselves in the situation. In Eleanor’s case she really had no options and she has a lot of siblings so it made it harder as well. I think that Eleanor leaving was the right choice but I also feel bad because of her other siblings left behind. I did some research and according to the National Runaway Safeline between 1.6-2.8 million children runaway each year in the United States. That is a crazy amount and way more common than I thought. There are so many different reasons children run away from home. I think that young children usually have no plan on where they’re going or what they are going to do when they run away but that they just think anything and anywhere is better than being in a poor situation at home. Eleanor seemed to have a good plan of going to her uncle’s house and then if her uncle said to go home she knew she could go to Parks. I find it sad that children don’t realize that there are other ways to get help and that there are other people they can talk to if their parents aren’t really there to help them or if their parents are the cause of them wanting to run away. There are school counselors and teachers or other family members that are willing to help in most situations. If you know someone is struggling with something at home you should always try to help them and talk to them to.

http://www.pollyklaas.org/enews-archive/2013-enews/article-web-pages/the-truth-about-runaways.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/#.WIEJVKIrKu4

https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/running-away-part-i-why-kids-do-it-and-how-to-stop-them/

From what I have read so far, the book Eleanor & Park is an innocent young love story. While reading this story, it makes you feel young and help you remember to be thankful and appreciative of the simple things in life. The characters in the book appreciate the little things about each other which makes them fall in love. I have never been the type of person to enjoy reading and have always hated being assigned books to read in class. When I first read the email saying we were going to have to read all of these books I kind of had this “Oh no” thought. As I started reading, it came to my surprise that I was getting more and more interested in the book. I found that I wasn’t dreading to continue reading and that I was able to follow the story very well and even relate to it in some ways. I really enjoyed how the book goes back and forth between Eleanor’s point of view and Park’s point of view, at first it was a little confusing but as I went on I found it helpful. The story explains the middle school bus setting so perfectly and its nice how the story brings together two completely different types of kids. It really touched my heart that this poor girl Eleanor goes through such a rough start as the new girl in school and has to live with such a rough at home life, she finds her only happiness and escape path through Park. Just thinking about seeing Park made Eleanor so happy and that’s what I find to be so cute. You can tell how much each young lover cares about the other one even with so few words being spoken. I think in the world today people need to start to look at the little things in life more and begin to appreciate people for the things that matter such as a good personality rather than material goods.

http://www.rainbowrowell.com/eleanor-park/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/books/review/eleanor-park-by-rainbow-rowell.html

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