Rebecca Stead meets The Westing Game in this scrappy, poignant, uplifting debut about family, friendship, and accepting help enough to help yourself.

For fans of Rebecca Stead and Joan Bauer comes a scrappy, poignant, uplifting debut about family, friendship, and the importance of learning both how to offer help and how to accept it.

A big-hearted novel with characters I wish were my friends in real life. -Gennifer Choldenko, author of the Al Capone at Alcatraz series

Jeanne Ann is smart, stubborn, living in an orange van, and determined to find a permanent address before the start of seventh grade. Cal is awkward, sensitive, living in a humongous house across the street, and determined to save her. Jeanne Ann wants Cal’s help just about as much as she wants to live in a van.

As the two form a tentative friendship that grows deeper over alternating chapters, they’re buoyed by a cast of complex, oddball characters, who let them down, lift them up, and leave you cheering. Debut novelist Danielle Svetcov shines a light on a big problem without a ready answer, pulling it off with the perfect balance of humor, heartbreak, and hope.

Insightful and touching…Not to be missed. -Karen Cushman, author of The Midwife’s Apprentice
For readers of Dan Gemeinhart and Katherine Applegate. -The Children’s Book Review
You won’t be able to put it down. Trust. -ScaryMommy.com
Relatable and beautifully told. -Commonsense Media
Pertinent….Honest…Uplifting…Fresh. -PW
Utterly of this moment. -Jack Cheng, author of See You in the Cosmos
Absorbing and warmhearted. -Annie Barrows, author of the Ivy & Bean series
Realistically hopeful…Recommended. -SLC
Sharp…Perceptive. -BCCB
Unforgettable. -Brightly