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A group of foster children build a home of their own. A ghost saved 12-year-old Maddie's life when she was an infant, her Granny Lane claims, so Maddie must always remember that she is special. But it's hard to feel special when you've spent your life being shuffled from one foster home to another.

Maddie lives in an orphanage in the present day. She is more or less at peace with her situation, and her best friend is the much younger six year old boy Ricky Ray. Until Murphy comes to the Home. Murphy is one of those magnetic people with whom everyone wants to be friends. Their friendship is tenuous at first, but grows stronger as the two them, Ricky Ray, Donita (another girl from the Home) and a well off boy from their middle school all become a little clique of their own on a mission to build a fort.
The book takes a tragic turn towards the end, and I cried along with Maddie. But there is a redeeming conclusion. ( )

This fiction book is about a girl who claims she was saved by a ghost when she was an infant, which makes her feel special. The main character, Murphy, grows up in many different foster homes in Tennessee. She tries to feel accepted into a home, so she creates a book of houses where she would like to live someday. This book has notable features such as descriptive words to imagine what is happening in the book. I would use this book as an instructional application to introduce the importance of identity. ( )