"Locomotion" By Jacqueline Woodson

                 I am currently reading the book, “Locomotion”, by Jacqueline Woodson. This book is about an eleven year old boy named Locomotion, but most people call him Lonnie. He writes in this book, only poetry, because it sometimes makes him feel better about certain things going on in his life. Locomotion lost his parents to a fire and his little sister, Lili, had been taken by different parents in foster care. However, I think that all of these problems are way too stressful for such a little boy.

                Lonnie has been through a lot throughout his life. One thing that he had to deal with was losing his parents, which was really hard because it caused so many other problems to come up. For example, after the fire was over, neighbors took both Locomotion and Lili in to take care of them for as long as they could. However, soon, the neighbors couldn’t take care of them anymore, thus, they were sent to foster care. When they finally got people to adopt them, they got separated because they had different foster parents. In addition, Lonnie doesn’t like his foster mom because she always tells him to be quiet. He also doesn’t like Lili’s foster mom because she won’t let Locomotion come to visit Lili, in result, they had to meet somewhere else. Another example is having to deal with his friend Eric being sick. Eric has the sickle-cell anemia, which could be deadly after a long period of having the disease. All in all, Lonnie has a lot of problems/issues to deal with at such a young age.

                In conclusion, Lonnie has a lot to deal with throughout his life, like trying to visit his sister and trying to forget seeing the fire. Moreover, he has to deal with not only family problems, but also school problems, like trying to fit in and has to deal with Eric have a deadly disease.