No Place Like Home

Ages 10 to 14

A middle-grade novel about an Ojibwe boy and his family living in their car, a stray dog, and the challenges of hoping for a forever home.

When home is a car, life is unpredictable. School, friends, and three meals a day aren't guaranteed. Not every town has a shelter where a family can sleep for a night or two, and places with parking lots don't welcome overnight stays.

Opin, his brother Emjay, and their mother are trying to get to Los Angeles, where they hope an uncle and a new life are waiting. Emjay has taken to disappearing for days, slowing down the family's progress and adding to their worry.

When Opin finds a stray dog who needs him as much as he needs her, his longing for a stable home intensifies, as his brother's reckless ways hit a new high. Opin makes a new friend in the shelter, but shelters don’t allow dogs . . .

Will anything other than a real home ever be enough?

About the Author

James Bird’s debut middle-grade novel, The Brave, was a Book Riot Best Book of 2020 and praised as “an amazing debut full of heart, authenticity, and courage” by School Library Journal in a starred review; his second novel, The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfalls, was called “heartening and sure to encourage readers,” by Booklist. He is also a screenwriter and director at the independent film company, Zombot Pictures. A California native of Ojibwe descent, he now lives in Massachusetts with his wife, the author and actor Adriana Mather, and their son.