What do you think?
Rate this book
What Happened on Planet Kid
Dawn's spending the summer on her aunt and uncle's farm while her mother recovers from an operation. She and her friend Charlotte are having a great fishing, baseball, swimming, playing tricks on Charlotte's brothers, and making a secret clearing in the woods called Planet Kid. But Dawn is starting to understand that something's wrong in Charlotte's life -- that a terrible threat of violence is hidden in this hot country summer. Is there anything Dawn can do to make things right?
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2000
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 17, 2015
This was a great book that addressed some of the harder things of childhood that are rarely addressed, especially in the 1950s: race and physical abuse. The story takes place in the summer in rural Virginia. The main character, Dawn, is there visiting her great-Aunt and Uncle while her mother gets a surgery in Washington DC. She becomes best friends with the girl down the road, Charlotte, and a boy named Delbert. They create a place called "Planet Kid" in a big field near there houses where they spend lots of fun time. Dawn also realizes that her friend Charlotte is being abused and is told not to tell. She chooses to tell her mom at the last minute and they send money to Charlotte's family so they can leave their abusive father.
I was interested in the topic because I know my own father grew up in an abusive, impoverished environment and he's hardly told me anything about it. After reading this book, I learned from him that he was so embarrassed to talk to people in his childhood because he was afraid he smelled like pee. He didn't have indoor plumbing as a child and there was a pee bucket in the house where they could relieve themselves in the night, and the outhouse outside for the rest of the time. If anyone wet the bed, the sheets were just hung up to dry, rarely washed. When he got older and had a little more control over how he smelled, he didn't have any confidence or ability to speak to other people.
Then he went on a mission, met my mother and everything changed.
So I could empathize with the abuse that occurred and how ashamed the family was and how everyone stayed quiet. I'm grateful we can speak more openly about tough subjects these days so that nobody has to be suppressed.
I was interested in the topic because I know my own father grew up in an abusive, impoverished environment and he's hardly told me anything about it. After reading this book, I learned from him that he was so embarrassed to talk to people in his childhood because he was afraid he smelled like pee. He didn't have indoor plumbing as a child and there was a pee bucket in the house where they could relieve themselves in the night, and the outhouse outside for the rest of the time. If anyone wet the bed, the sheets were just hung up to dry, rarely washed. When he got older and had a little more control over how he smelled, he didn't have any confidence or ability to speak to other people.
Then he went on a mission, met my mother and everything changed.
So I could empathize with the abuse that occurred and how ashamed the family was and how everyone stayed quiet. I'm grateful we can speak more openly about tough subjects these days so that nobody has to be suppressed.
December 8, 2011
Dawn and her friend Charlotte create an imaginary place called Planet Kid. The girls live in a poor community. Dawn comes across Charlotte's bruises and realizes that Charlotte's father abuses her and her family. This book covers racism, poverty, and abuse. I am not sure how I would I would use this in my classroom.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews