What I Call Life

"I haven' t even explained yet about the Knitting Lady. Who is she? How did I wind up on her doorstep? How did I meet the other girls who became my friends-- no, they became more than friends-- despite the fact that they drove me absolutely crazy. " "" "I need to take a giant step back, return myself to the police car and explain how I, Cal Lavender, came to be living a life that wasn' t my own." A witty and moving first novel that uncovers another side of the foster-care system Cal Lavender is perfectly happy living her anonymous life, even if she does have to play mother to her own mother a whole lot more than an eleven-year-old should. But when Cal' s mother has one of her " unfortunate episodes" in the middle of the public library, she is whisked off by the authorities and Cal is escorted to a seat in the back of a police car. On " just a short, temporary detour from what I call life, " Cal finds herself in a group home with four other girls, watched over by a strange old woman everyone refers to as the Knitting Lady. At first Cal can think of nothing but how to get out of this nuthouse. She knows she doesn' t belong there. But it turns out that all the girls, and even the Knitting Lady, may have a lot more in common than they could have imagined. A fresh new voice in middle-grade fiction-- Jill Wolfson' s unforgettable characters will blunder their way into readers' hearts.Wolfson, Jill is the author of 'What I Call Life', published 2008 under ISBN 9780312377526 and ISBN 0312377525.