All Alone After School

Rating:
Summary: Safety tips for kids going home to empty houses
Review: This book discusses where children go after school, then, introduces the child who goes home alone. He handles the situation well, but gets scared sometimes.
The reading level is around 4th or 5th grade. The words and pictures are easily understood by elementary school age children, but the subject matter suggests around 10 or 11 years old.
The book is 30 pages in length, and has great pictures that really tell the emotions of the children.
Thirty pages of text and pictures that describe exactly what it is like to be a child who goes home alone every day after school. The pictures seem to really tell the emotions and are great pencil drawings.
Developmentally, this book would have to be for 4th or 5th graders. It stresses the independence that can be felt by doing things yourself. The responsibility of having to be at home alone is monumental for a child.
This book is wonderful for showing the many different ethnicities and family groups, showing how many different children do different things after school.
One on one with a child if I were to know the home situation well is when I would use this book. This could be sent home with the child to read and then discussed later.
When a parent is working and cannot be there for their child, it can be devastating. Sometimes kids don't understand why their parents cannot be there and resent having to go home to an empty house. I would use this book to view the positive side of being home alone.
This book would not be a really great one if parents had just divorced or a parent just passed away. I would use this book only if the child has been on his/her own with the one parent for a significant amount of time.