Debbie is wishing something would happen. Something good. To her. Soon. In the meantime, Debbie loses a necklace and finds a necklace (and boy does the necklace have a story to tell), she goes jeans shopping with her mother (an accomplishment in diplomacy), she learns to drive shift in a truck (illegally), she saves a life (directly connected to being able to drive, thus proving something), she takes a bus ride to another town (in order to understand what it feels like to be from "elsewhere"), she meets a boy (who truly is from "elsewhere"), but mostly she hangs out with her friends: Patty, Hector, Lenny, and Phil. Their paths cross. Their stories crisscross. And in Lynne Rae Perkins's remarkable book, a girl and her wish grow up. Illustrated throughout with blackandwhite pictures, comics, and photographs by the author. Ages 10+

 

There are 352 pages in this book. This book was published 2008 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc .

Lynne Rae Perkins was awarded the Newbery Medal for Criss Cross. She is the author of three other novels-All Alone in the Universe, As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, and Nuts to You. Lynne Rae Perkins has also written and illustrated several picture books, including The Broken Cat; Snow Music, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and a Book Sense Top Ten Pick; Pictures from Our Vacation; and The Cardboard Piano. The author lives with her family in northern Michigan.