This is one of my favorite children's/young adult authors. Not only is she home grown, but she is not afraid to look at the problems in our city and she gives a voice to kids.

This particular book has some powerful scenes - the Pearl family having to spend the night in a police station "it was almost, Early thought, as if you weren't 100 percent human when you came into the police station on the wrong side of the front desk," (p. 73) the helplessness of realizing you can't go home and are at the mercy of an inefficient system to "help" you find a home, and the desperateness of trying to live up to your dreams.

Here are a few more quotes that stuck out to me:

"'We've had a bad night.' The man threw back his head and laughed. He glanced around, and several others smiled, too. 'Hold it at one, beautiful, and you'll conquer the world!' he said." (p. 76)

"'I realized something awful in that room today. That when you're this poor and without money or an address, hardly anyone thinks you're worth listening to or helping...'" (p. 132)

"It's difficult to count the homeless. Some hide, others aren't sure how to be seen, still others are too young to ask for help. On any given night in the United States, over one and a half million children find themselves without an address or a front door to call their own. As of October 2011, the city of Chicago reported roughly fifteen thousand abandoned buildings, most the result of foreclosure. They sit silent, haunting the neighborhoods that surround them. With an estimated thirty thousand homeless kids in this city, the questions are obvious. Luckily, do are the dreams." - Blue Balliett