Written by an author who has vast experience in the child detention system, this is an incredible book of young 17 year old Shavonne who has somehow survived a very traumatic childhood, a life of failed foster home experiences and now resides in a juvenile detention facility.

Grieving the loss of her child, Shavonne lashes out at everyone, especially those she thinks are trying to help her.
The clock is ticking as she will soon be released from the facility and will have to face the outside world. Luckily, she is fortunate to have a dedicated, burnt out counselor who is watching the time slip with her as he attempts to allow her to face her demons and realize that so much of what happened to her at an early age, was none of her fault.

Superbly written, this is a truthful depiction of a young woman who must begin to make good decisions so that the rest of her life is not like the terrible years before. ( )

Something Like Hope is one of those books that takes away your breath and shocks you. At times this book was disturbing especially when you start thinking about how this happens in real life. It's definitely a book that needs to read by more people so they can become more aware. ( )

Seventeen year old Shavonne is in a juvenile detention facility. Teens wind up incarcerated from reasons ranging to serious crimes they've committed to serious crimes committed against them. Many have been raped in foster homes, which have led them to lives of crime. Their problems continue when they're placed in juvenile detention centers because many are understaffed and filled with mean and uncaring guards. This is what Shavonne faces, and as she recounts her story, readers feel their hearts break at what thousands of teens face every day across the United States. Read and be educated. ( )

This story is both brutally honest, and hopeful. Shawn Goodman wrote this poignant novel in response to his experiences working in juvenile detention facilities. Unfortunately, many people across the country have had experiences like Shawn. This is why it's so very important for people to know about Something Like Hope. I hope that many readers (teens, parents, educators, etc) will read this novel. Recommended for grades 6 and up. ( )

by Jill Swenson

Reading the essays of Amy Tan in The Opposite of Fate makes me ponder what its inverse might be: perhaps it is hope.

Young adult fiction is not a genre I generally seek out, given my lack of interest in vampires or teen romance. But Ithaca author, Shawn Goodman, wrote the winner of the 2009 Delacorte Press Prize for a First Young Adult Novel and I wanted to see why.

Something like Hope (Delacorte Press/Random House) is not what I expected of teen fiction. It’s a haunting story of Shavonne, who has been in “juvie” all her teenage years. Based on Shawn Goodman’s own experiences working within New York State juvenile detention facilities, it’s a coming of age story that breaks your heart open to the possibility of hope for someone who has had the cards stacked against her. The antics of abusive guards and careless counselors give the reader an unflinchingly honest and realistic look inside these institutions which beg for juvenile justice reform.

It’s the voice of Shavonne, though, that makes this a captivating story. Angry and confused by what has happened to her, Shavonne lashes out in violence against those who come close to her secrets. As her 18th birthday approaches with imminent release into a harsh world, she begins to open up to a sad-eyed middle-aged white male counselor. He lets her come to terms with giving birth to a baby delivered straight into the system and her own crackhead mother who deserted her. He lets her see it isn’t her fault; but what comes next for her will be of her own choosing. He lets her discover these things herself.

The connections between her low self-esteem and self-destructive path lead her to the weight of guilt from the secret she keeps. The guilt she has carried for the role she played in her brother’s childhood accident builds like emotional thunderclouds. Letting go of the blame and shame for not being a mother to her brother, or a mother to her own infant, is only possible when she begins to recognize she has been a motherless child. Only now is she becoming an adult and will be responsible for her own self from now on and Shavonne discovers something like hope. ( )