The orphanages were sometimes a blessing in comparison to the homes Jennings is lent out to, where he learns that love and compassion are hard to find, even if they can be found anywhere. Forced to listen for a clicker to get them to line up for dinner or a clap of the hands to get them to line up for lunch. The orphans are locked up during the night and also during the day. Through hardship, pain, emotional rampage, Jennings learns that stuffed animals are not the only thing that is caged for protection. This metaphor grows into the entire essence of the book. Each night the nuns would come around and collect the animals, caging them in little cubbies. Early in the book we meet his constant friend, Doggie, a white and tan stuffed animal that was given to him, (at first) only at night, at the first home he stayed at. With his mother too tired, sick, and beaten down to care for him and his brothers, he is shipped off several times to either foster homes or to orphanages. Set in the 1950s, in New York City and its environs, we get the unforgettable account of a few years of Jennings's childhood. I still remember certain scenes where Jennings, the narrator, and the author of this autobiographical novel either received amazing amounts of love or terrible amounts of abuse. We also got to keep the books that were assigned to us. Interestingly enough, we got to read this in middle school.
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