cover image No Place for Cal

No Place for Cal

Jane Morton. Avon Books, $2.75 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-380-75548-6

Cal Clark has been in and out of foster homes since he was young, and has run away from almost all of them. He is in court again and hopes that this time his mother will keep him. But she has another excuse not to take him, and Cal is sent to another group home--which he, of course, plans to leave. But Mr. Ore, the home's director, is different from other social workers Cal has encountered and he decides to give it a chance. The other kids at the home are nice, too, and like them, Cal pitches in and helps in the community. Assigned to the animal shelter, Cal meets and befriends a dog. But just when everything is going well, a confrontation at school and his mother's disappearance makes Cal--and the dog--run away again. Only when Cal finds his mother does he realize that doing what is best sometimes means letting someone else go. Morton has written a sensitive, unsentimental novel about a boy's fierce desire for a home. Quick-moving and peopled with believable characters, the novel is frank and refreshing. Ages 8-12. (June)