Hardscrabble Way

All Delia Williams wants is to be named scholar athlete when she graduates from eighth grade at the end of the year. Her life is crowded with cheerleading, keeping up her A average, shopping, and parties. To the outside world, she is the girl who appears to have it all. Yet Delia is missing the one thing she longs for; her family’s approval. When her father dies, Delia’s life shatters. Her pampered mother Emily spirals into a debilitating depression as the family plummets into poverty. Before his death, her father’s business collapsed leaving them with no credit or money. The bank forecloses on their home, forcing Delia and Emily to move into a room in a welfare hotel. When a social worker threatens to send Delia to foster care and hospitalize her mother, they flee to Hardscrabble Way, a tent city for the homeless on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Life inside the tent city exposes Delia to eccentric characters like Crazy Annie and Chief Cheyenne. She also meets her first love, Denny Jaxson, who supports her as she adjusts and tries to conquer the challenges of her new situation. At first Delia struggles to fit into her new community, but she soon comes to consider this her family. Delia discovers her own inner strength as she learns what truly matters. This heartwarming novel is based on true events.