"This compassionate first novel is skillfully related and its characters are perceptively drawn. . . . 'They ain't no guarantees worth piddly squat,' Hank warns Elvira, but in her sweetly comic, determined way, Elvira sets out to improve the odds. . . . A noteworthy debut."Publishers WeeklyA School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and winner of the Washington Irving Children's Choice Award. |