Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
Place to Call Home
Jackie French Koller · 1997
82/100
👍 Worth It
A Place to Call Home earns its ALA Notable designation — Anna is one of those protagonists who feels utterly real, a fifteen-year-old carrying weight no teenager should have to and doing it without melodrama. Koller handles poverty, abandonment, and the foster system with honesty and warmth rather than despair. The resolution moves a little fast, but the emotional journey that gets there is beautifully drawn.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety88
substance84
craft83
originality74
accuracy85
hype80
age-fit88
human-eye82
Penny’s verdict82
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