GO

Following Sit (2017) and Step (2022), this story collection continues to center on children navigating a cold and uncaring world.

Each entry follows a young teen who’s neglected, abandoned, or exploited. Canadian Brodie, who presents white, is pushed by his family to take the rap for his favored 18-year-old brother; he ends up in juvenile detention for crimes he didn’t commit. Libyan orphan Liberi takes a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to Rome, where he reluctantly falls into a life of petty crime. In Canada, Janine, who reads white, discovers that her father has a secret daughter in the Philippines, where he went on business, and this half sister is living on the streets; the two become pen pals. Nadira, a Uyghur girl, lives in a Chinese government boarding school. Her mother was sent to a reeducation camp, and she doesn’t know what’s become of her father. Each child faces a choice: let their situations doom them or take a chance on themselves. Ellis conveys the belief that there’s a way out of the darkness, if you choose to reach for it. These young people make what they can of the unacceptable, often heartbreaking, hands they’ve been dealt in life. The lack of resolution is part of the beauty of these stories: There are no magical happy endings, just young people deciding to seize the reins of their own lives.

Explores the darkness some children grow up in, as well as their ability to take charge—and go.