First published 2003
Ten-year-old Evelyn Bucknow watches the world from her front porch in small-town Kansas. Her single mother works multiple jobs to keep them afloat, leaving Evelyn to make sense of the adult complications swirling around her. She observes the neighbors, listens to grown-up conversations, and tries to understand why some families seem to have everything while others struggle for the basics. Evelyn's sharp eyes catch the contradictions between what adults say and what they do. She sees through the polite facades to the messy truths underneath. Her mother's choices puzzle and sometimes embarrass her, but Evelyn slowly begins to grasp the difficult realities that shape their lives. Through a child's clear-eyed perspective, she discovers that the center of everything might not be where she thought it was. This coming-of-age story captures the moment when innocence meets understanding.
Genres: literary-fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, family-drama, slice-of-life
Setting: Kansas
Period: 20th-century
291 pages · Hardcover · Grand Central Publishing