Kirkus Reviews

A heroine with spunk and spirit offers an inspiring lesson in perseverance and hope. When a young girl's parents divorce, she's separated from her stepfather and her two young half-sisters. Life is far from normal as Addie and her irresponsible mother settle into a tiny trailer on the corner of an urban intersection. Addie admits, "I'm good at getting used to things—been doing it all my life," and immediately makes a cozy nest for herself in the trailer. She optimistically starts sixth grade, makes friends, meets her neighbors and keeps house on a shoestring while her unpredictable mother spends days sleeping and nights chatting on the Internet. Challenged by dyslexia, Addie works extra hard to succeed in school and learn her flute part in the orchestra. Yearning for a "normal" life, Addie's shaken when her stepfather and sisters move away leaving her on her own with her moody mother who disappears for days. Disappointed and alone, Addie realistically makes the best of a bad situation. In the end, her positive attitude and ability to find happiness make all the difference as she patiently waits for "normal." First-rate. (Fiction. 10-13)

ALA Booklist

We've seen this situation before: a parent neglects a child, while the child seeks a wider community to find support. Here that child is 12-year-old Addie, who lives with Mommers in a trailer on a busy street in Schenectady after her adored stepfather and half sisters move upstate. Mommers has lost custody of the "littles" because of neglect, and though she and Addie can laugh together, once Mommers hooks up with Pete, she is not much for good times ough she brings the bad times home. Addie finds solace in occasional visits to her sisters and in her neighbors, especially Soula, ill from her chemotherapy treatments. Connor takes a familiar plot and elevates it with smartly written characters and unexpected moments. Addie starts out being a kid who thinks she has to go along to get along, but as Mommers' actions become more egregious, her spine stiffens. And though Addie loves her time upstate, she is willing to forgo it when the normality she has there is more painful than positive. This is a meaningful story that will touch many.

Horn Book

Twelve-year-old Addison lives in a trailer, never knowing how long her moody, unreliable mom will be gone. Despite a bevy of concerned individuals, Addie keeps her mother's absences a secret. Connor convincingly portrays the protagonist's beyond-her-years resourcefulness and the feelings that drive her to protect the life she has while longing to be part of a "normal" home.

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

Connor (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Dead on Town Line) treats the subject of child neglect with honesty and grace in this poignant story. Addie's stepfather, Dwight, has always been the responsible one in the family. But after he and her mother divorce, and he gets custody of Addie's two younger half-sisters, it's up to Addie, a sixth-grader, to keep order in the tiny trailer that Dwight has found for Addie and her mother. While her mother disappears for days at a time with her new boyfriend, Addie cultivates friendships with people she meets at a neighboring convenience store, but the affection she receives from others doesn't compensate for the absence of love in her home. Addie works hard to fill the void her volatile mother creates, and Addie's attempts to make things “normal” result in some of the most moving scenes: she keeps the cabinets full by putting empty boxes of food on the shelf “for show.” In such moments Connor shows both the extent to which Addie has been abandoned and just how resilient and resourceful she is. Characters as persuasively optimistic as Addie are rare, and readers will gravitate to her. Ages 10-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Feb.)

Voice of Youth Advocates

Before the divorce, life with her stepfather and half-sisters gave sixth grader Addie a glimpse of normal life. Now, though, she is stuck in a trailer in a dreary part of Schenectady, New York, with her mercurial and unreliable mother. Resilient Addie, however, makes the most of every situation. She befriends the owner of a nearby minimart, plays flute at school, and makes the trailer a home. Although yearning to belong to her stepfather's new family-which she visits-Addie tries to keep believing her mother's promises of prosperity, and to keep "Mommers's" prolonged absences a secret. When a disaster reveals her abandonment, though, Addie discovers many heroes eager to help her out-and maybe, at last, to get her the normal life she craves. This novel is all about character, and Addie's shines. She personifies loyalty, optimism, hard work, pragmatism, and courage. Like such beloved heroines as Sara Crewe, Polly Pepper, and Little Orphan Annie, Addie effortlessly finds the positive in life, without denying its bleak realities, and earns true friends who catch her when she falls. The other characters-especially the vibrant, self-obsessed Mommers; the bighearted, cancer-ridden minimart owner; and the loving stepfather-are engagingly multilayered as well. There are no villains here, just real people. The book's only flaws are that Mommers's activities are kept too secret, building an unfulfilled sense of mystery, and that the story spreads out over too long a time period, slowing its momentum. Try with fans of the well-deserved happy ending.-Rebecca C. Moore.