Won't Know 'Til I Get There

Walter Dean Myers' "Won't Know 'Til I Get There" follows Steve, a young boy whose life takes an unexpected turn when his parents adopt a foster child, Rob, who comes with a past criminal record. Trying to impress the new kid, Steve and his friends get caught spray-painting graffiti and are sentenced to community service at an old-age home. This poignant and humorous story explores themes of responsibility, consequences, intergenerational relationships, and finding common ground with people from different walks of life. It's an excellent read for late elementary to middle schoolers, offering rich discussion points about choices, empathy, and challenging stereotypes.

When Steve's parents decide to adopt a foster child, it seems like a good idea. And when Steve decides to show the new kid how tough he is by spray-painting the side of a subway car, that seems like a good idea too. But the foster child turns out to be a thirteen-year-old with a criminal record, and the guys in the designer jeans watching Steve spray-paint graffiti turn out to be transit police. Suddenly Steve and the whole gang are serving time, working in an old-age home with a bunch of feisty and independent senior citizens who refuse to sit still and be stereotyped--by anybody.