Divorce is always hard on children, but when Adele, Henry’s mother, decides to harbor escaped convict Frank Chambers in her home on Labor Day weekend, thirteen year old Henry’s life gets better – for a while.

Told in Henry’s young  tentative voice, Joyce Maynard’s Labor Day begins as a familiar story of a mentally ravaged, divorced mother trying to survive.   Adele may be the extreme example of a shattered life.   She hides in her house, fearful of everyone.   Maynard reveals later that she has good reason, but her depression only motivates Henry to try to make his mother happy.

On a rare outing to get food – tomato soup and fish sticks – Henry and Adele meet Frank, a convicted murderer – bleeding from jumping out a hospital window to escape after having an appendectomy.   Adele and Frank instantly connect; his compassion and gentility meet her…