The Simple Gift is a free verse novel and the fascinating story of a 16-year-old boy, Billy, who leaves his abusive father's home and a boring school life, in waiting for something better than what he left. behind. He finds a home on an abandoned freight train outside a small town. He falls in love with a rich girl, Caitlin, and befriends another train resident, Old Bill. Billy is voluntarily homeless but now has a future he didn't have before. This book is an affirmative look at the characteristics of humanity, generosity and love. Link to Belonging: 1) Authentic relationships ensure an individual's worth, identity and connection: People seek belonging to find identity, relationships and learn acceptance and understanding "This morning, I woke up and knew where I was going for the next few months - to the library, to McDonald's, to the river and home here at the Hilton - a circuit of projects with Caitlin in the center and me a poorly dressed man satellite spinning wildly in his orbit."2) Physical security fuels notions of belonging: Billy's relationship with and dissatisfaction with his abusive father and the description of "Nowheresville" as "a dark, cold, damp place" were an obstacle to allowing Billy to belong His dissatisfaction with home led him to choose not to belong there and thus caused his inevitable search for a sense of belonging that he could not find if he remained in the house. his father's house. While searching for a place to belong, Billy learns that "there are men like Ernie, and there are other men, men like [his] father." This leads Billy to understand the contrasting and opposing difference between a violent and disaffected father figure and an understanding and kinship father figure who is characterized through...... middle of paper ...... chance of hope, c At this point the dull surroundings are ignored and the red-haired girl is shown smiling as a tree with glowing red leaves grows in her room. The girl depicted in the red tree struggles to find her sense of belonging in her own world in her daily life. Billy struggles to fit in with his father and his neighborhood. Amidst the struggles and disconnections encountered in life, the characters Red Tree and Billy in Simple Gift1) Being disconnected from the world causes isolation and increased depression as we allow ourselves to believe. they are not understood by anyone and their progression towards belonging does not exist. 2) Depression shifts the focus from needing to belong in life to thinking that you never can. 3) The hope of belonging is always present and revealed through the little things, even when greater difficulties are present.