Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award

The One Safe Place

on September 3, 2015
Devin lives on a farm with his grandfather.
When his grandfather dies, Devin travels to the mysterious city to look for help. He finds a run-down world of extreme poverty and extreme wealth. The rich people control the water in this hot, dry world. Devin befriends a girl named Kit who shows him how to survive on the streets.
There is rumored to be an orphanage at the edge of the city where children can be safe. Kit and Devin go in search of comfort but find a nightmare. Rich people pay to “borrow” their bodies and memories to relive their childhoods. And children like Kit, with unhappy childhoods, disappear mysteriously. How can they get out?

28 Responses to “The One Safe Place”

  1. Aidan says:

    In my opinion the one safe place is a very fun and entertaining book, for many reasons. One reason is it is a very mysterious, and I could not wait to know what happens next. Another reason it is entertaining is, nothing is what it seems. Like Devin’s friends think that that they are going to get adopted, but a little later on they find out the truth. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves books that are suspenseful and mysterious.

  2. Maddie says:

    I loved the One Safe Place. I liked how mixed up and twisted it was. There was one specific part in the book that puzzled me, though, what was the injection really for? At the end, the author seemed to leave that out. But other than that, the book was superb.

  3. Courtnay says:

    I love it

  4. cupcakeSN says:

    I don’t like the fact that Devin’s grandfather is dead right in the begging.

  5. Toni says:

    CaleVT, I think that sometimes we are so desperate for hope, that we will even take the comfort of a lie, rather than face what seems to be hopeless and too painful to deal with. Unfortunately, as is shown in this story, that sort of voluntary blindness and complacency can keep us from actually overcoming our circumstances, to find true hope.

  6. SarahVT says:

    it sounds like there is only one safe place no where else not any more safe places.

  7. Maddison says:

    Although I didn’t like this book I liked the description:)

  8. Maddison says:

    Another reason why I didn’t like this book was because of how his grandpa died:(

  9. Maddison says:

    I did not like the one safe place because it was so confusing when they where talking about how the town was surrounded by rocks.

  10. CaleVT says:

    To Toni & NoraVT

    Why do you think that people do not want to believe what they know is true? Also, what good does it do to do that? I think that people want to think that the world that they are in is safe, and if people have something they want, they will try to tell themselves it’s good or not bad.

    I

  11. CaleVT says:

    to Pollen

    Why do you think this book is good? Is it because the author is really always giving you a mystery to solve, or is it because you think that Devin and his friends are safe, but they aren’t? Can you tell me something that could let me know the good parts that make you want to say it is a good book.

  12. CaleVT says:

    I think two of the book’s themes are friendship and kindness. If you have friends and are kind it can get you out of the worst of times. The book starts with Devin unable to get everything done at the farm. Looking for help, he goes to the town where his grandpa used to go to get things. There, he thinks it will be easy to get help, but he gets robbed and is left to find food by himself. After that he makes a new friend, Kit. Then Devin does an act of kindness which leads them to a place with food and water and all the toys they could want. Then he makes more friends at the Gabriel H. Penn House for Childhood. These examples show how friendship and kindness help Kit and Devin survive in a hard world.

  13. CaleVT says:

    Why does the cover have a picture of the corn field with Devin looking at the corn and Kit running? I think that the publisher put this on the cover because it shows how Devin feels as he remembers the farm where the corn was their main food source. The place where Devin and his friends go also has all the food you would want. The part with Kit pursuing Devin is showing that Kit is concerned that the two of them will have to leave each other because she does not want to go with him to escape the children’s home. In the book, Kit is angry and the two of them get into a little fight and that is why Kit runs after Devin, because she wants to tell him something important.

  14. NoraVT says:

    I just want to let everyone know that the beginning of this book is sad, but you should keep reading and when you finish, you’ll be glad you did, I swear. At first I hated this book. It was too sad and the saddest thing is that this has happened and happens all the time. I let it get to me and I let myself hate this book. Whatever you do, do not hate something before you really know it. That is bad karma.

  15. NoraVT says:

    To SiennaVT: I hadn’t really liked this book until I finished it. I was going to quit reading it and I would have missed out on an amazing book had I not taken the time to read your comments. They helped me decide to keep reading because they talked about how good the book is/was. I want to thank you for making me read this book because in the end, I really liked it. Thank you.

  16. siennaVT says:

    I wonder if Devin and Kit will ever find the key to the fence? I think they will because in the book Kit always said that you should steal something small then steal something big, so when Kit came back from the administrators office with something that would be helpful to find the key thats when I thought that they would find the key.

  17. Anonymous says:

    To Pollen:
    What did you like about the book? Why do you like it?

  18. Toni says:

    Yes, NoraVT, I’d agree.

  19. NoraVT says:

    To Toni:
    I totally think this happens to us. In fact, I think it happens all the time. You ignore something that you know is true usually because it’s bad and you don’t want it to be true so you tell yourself it’s not true even though it totally is.

  20. NoraVT says:

    I really don’t like this book. It’s really sad how the grandfather dies in the beginning of the book and leaves Devin all alone. It’s also sad how Devin wanders alone in the streets and has to steal to stay alive. I’m fine reading any kind of book really, even the bloodiest, goriest fantasy, but what I really don’t like is reading something sad or scary that actually could happen or already has.

  21. siennaVT says:

    Im responding to Pollen!
    I agree with you,I think it’s a really good book! It captured me in with the story,for example,when it said “and thats how the adventure began”.That just made me wonder what will happen next in the book? Will Devin make it to the city with very little water and food? Maybe or maybe not. Thats why I continued with the book, because of the authors use of words and also that paragraph.

  22. siennaVT says:

    Im inferring that Devin,Kit,Luke,and Molloy will try to escape the Gabriel H.Penn Home for childhood and then take the other kids with because it said in the book that they are going to try to make a plan to escape so they can be somewhere else that makes sure they are safe from the mean staff. I also think that it will be a challenging experience because in the home there are invisible fences so the kids couldn’t get out and were basically trapped. When Luke finally turned off 4 of the fences they didn’t know which one was which because there’s 8 fences in all, so they had to wing it. Those were all the reasons why I’m inferring those 2 things.

  23. siennaVT says:

    I thought Devin was going to the city to find help on the farm since it was to hard to take care of it because his grandfather died and Devin is now alone. Currently Devin is in the Gabriel H. Penn Home For Childhood,and is not even thinking of why he came to city in the first place.
    I think it’s because Devin is now happy and is getting real food, but he hasn’t seen the bad side of the home so maybe he will go to plan A.

  24. siennaVT says:

    Im responding to Chaz.
    I disagree with him.In my opinion The One Safe Place is a great book!It makes me think deeply about the book,for example,when Devin had to go to the administrators office to take a shot when he had already gotten a shot 4 days ago.That made me think about all the reasons why they would have to give him the shot.One of my thoughts was that I think that since he is new to the place maybe they need to do more things to him so they know him better.This is one of the reasons why I disagree with Chaz.

  25. Pollen says:

    It’s good.

  26. hannahpeacock says:

    What didn’t you like about it?

  27. Chaz says:

    It is awful

  28. Toni says:

    Some of the orphans chose to ignore what they knew was true, because they didn’t want it to be true. Do you think this ever happens to us?

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