Based on the fantastic opening of this book I thought I would be giving it more than 3 stars. With sloppy character development, 3 stars it is. First, back to that fantastic opening.

"Paper towels might seem like a strange thing to steal. I mean, I could have stolen some candy or crackers or something. But paper towels last longer than food. A roll of paper towels can feed me and my sister, Anna, for a whole week—sometimes more."

This kind of writing has an affect. I found myself very uncomfortable at the thought of kids eating paper towels. I was prepared for this book to have me in knots until the end. Unfortunately, it was strong out of the gate, but quickly tired.

The book opens with Sara and Anna awakened by a police officer and social worker at their door. Their mother took off a couple of years prior and their alcoholic dad stays gone for days at a time. Faced with the prospect of another foster home, they run out the back door and head across town to the Silvermans. The Silvermans are their favorite foster parents, but they only take temporary placements. They are moved to another temporary placement with another set of kind adults until Sara settles into a longterm placement. Anna is placed in a therapeutic facility instead of going with Sara to the long-term foster placement. Sara has a major problem with this at first, but eventually realizes that it's necessary for Anna to get help with her emotional problems. The Chandlers decide to adopt Sara, but Sara's reaction to this feels rushed and forced.

In the end, I did not feel moved by the book because the characters were flat. I did not feel the emotional tension that these girls would have been feeling after all they had been through. I was surprised when Anna ended up going to a residence home. As described, her behaviors did not reach the level of needing special care. It also surprised me that Anna was the older girl, because all along I thought Sara was the older one. Perhaps there were too many characters for the author to manage. In the future I recommend she stick to fewer characters so she can work on developing them better.

An example of a foster care book that fully develops the foster child and foster parent is [b: One for the Murphys|12926804|One for the Murphys|Lynda Mullaly Hunt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320344047s/12926804.jpg|15093617] by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. ( )

Sara is used to caring for her older sister Anna. Their mother left years ago, and their father, a musician with a drinking problem, is far from reliable. A series of foster homes has left the girls with very little, and Anna has many issues that not all foster parents can deal with - some of them probably the result of bad placements. Sara just needs them to stay together in spite of the system. ( )

Sara, age 10 and her sister Sister Anna, age 12 are abandoned by their parents. Their mother left home with barely a goodbye and their father was is in jail and struggles with drug addiction. Soon the sisters, despite their pleas, are placed in foster care. Sara, although younger, protects her older sister who is fragile from all of the trauma she has been through and we learn that this is their second time through the foster care system.

Although the author, with her clear and crisp writing, allows us to feel the sisters intense pain over their losses and beautifully describes the conflict that Sara goes through as she realizes that her sister needs more help than she can give, I found it hard to fully immerse myself in the story. All I could think was that I have never heard or seen the social welfare system work as well as in this book. As a social worker I have seen hundred's of children go through the foster care system and it does not look like this. It is possible to have one good foster parent but I have not seen any kids go through the foster system (especially twice) and have such caring, astute, loving adults in their lives. Being in foster care is hard, and often borders on its own kind of neglect so it just felt surreal to read this story. So, three stars because of the portraits of two sisters who love each other, for a story that conveys the sadness and trauma of severe neglect but hampered by the picture perfect account of the foster system. Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion. ( )