Enigmatic piece that apparently won an Eisner nomination on first being published. We get quiet, subdued splash-pages with a short sentence in a typewritten font, where a woman hopes someone called Burt will fit in. It doesn't look like that will happen, however, because in between her bits are Burt's, in regular comic strip format, and he just wants to get his time machine mended and back into the outer universe. It might look like Burt is also a human and has just been adopted or fostered out to the older character, but then again – perhaps he really is an orphan from the distant other. Of course it wants to speak in its quiet, unshowy way about adoptions and how people struggle to fit into the constructed families of the modern age, but in leaving it so open as to how Burt might just be telling the truth it kind of loses some of the message. Three and a half stars.

This book is either about a boy who comes from another world, who lost his parents, and now resides on earth, or he is a boy who has lost his parents, and is from earth. We dont’ really know, and it really isn’t important.

This picture book/graphic novel is told in two voices, that of Burt, and how he came from another time and planet, and desperately wants to get home, and that of his foster mother, who wants only to help him.

Burt keeps making devices with bits of elctornics, to see if he can contact his parents, out in space. His foster mother humors him.

I am touched by this story, because I used to always believe I was an alien on earth. It is, I think, a common feeling, of not fitting in with the other humans. Burt lives in his world, where all he wants to do is to go home.

Since we dont’ know what the truth is, and we realize that we dont’ need to know the truth, we can just accept this story for what it is, on both levels.

A good way to help children who have been thrown into foster care through no fault of their own. And a good story for those who have always felt as though we just have to find our real parents out there in space.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

This book is a wonderful glimpse into each side of the foster relationship. It shows such genuine caring and patience on the side of the foster mother, and truly illustrates the trauma that a foster child brings to the relationship. This book tugged at the heartstrings and made me so sad and hopeful all at the same time. I loved her gentle expressions of love, and I enjoyed the ending where we see that her kindness and persistence have gotten through the layers of hurt and protection. Such a powerful and yet unassuming story that I could easily see being used both for foster parents and foster children, or the siblings in foster families. I highly recommend this gem!

The art and storytelling is abstract for me to enjoy this one. I love the premise of wan imaginative, wistful, hurting foster child. I love that this story doesn’t tie up the lessons in a neat little bow, because life is messy and complicated. But I just couldn’t connect with the style. The all blue pallet, the animal-based characters on top of Burt imagining he is an alien and his parents are not on this earth….it just didn’t work for me.

Woo, that got me right in the heart. Burt is so cute and determined to find his way home. Lydia is so patient and caring. I hope that every foster child gets to experience that level of understanding from their foster parent(s).

Burt's way home is a sweet little graphic novel about a boy who explains his placement in foster care by telling himself he's an alien, his parents are trapped on earth, and he must master technology to save them. The perspective of his foster mother is also represented here illustrating that Burt and his foster mother are each unaware of the other's mindset. In the end, Burt gives up his pursuits to return home with his foster mom indicating that he has realized this is his new life. I love the monochromatic colors, which are the perfect backdrop for a story so complex, and the uniquely drawn characters. While the story is quite sad, the ending is full of hope for the two characters.