Like a photograph seared in the mind, Run Away to the Yard has lasting power, offering its readers the chance to alter assumed perceptions of culture-and of self. "While the currents of family and illness are most compelling, there is another current, looking out from eyes that absorb the world and reflect, and it is this voice that seems most True, as in the truth that catches and holds still for a moment the world's most urgent questions. 'If she keeps moving, everything seems the same,' that voice pulls from amid the chaos of a party. 'She wonders if anyone is happy.' This voice we should heed--the voice that does not run away but instead penetrates, that gazes forth and listens." -Abigail Cloud