by P. L. Whitney

Charlie's sister Graceanne is only twelve years old, but she is famous in Cranepool's Landing, Missouri.She has the highest IQ in her school, she stars, with her sister, on the school baseball team, and she holds an unassailable record for creative misbehavior.But that is her way of stubbornly refusing to surrender herself to abuse, both emotional and physical, from their mother driven to desperation by abandonment and poverty. Graceanne has a secret hidden under the springs of her bed -- notebooks filled with 'Graceanne's Book' --an ongoing, marvelously inventive story that she shares with Charlie and her older sister, Kentucky when Charlie discovers it. When Graceanne's big-sisterly jibes at her little brother turn to a growing bond between them, the boy finds a model in a spirit that cannot be broken, a mind that remains independent, and a heart that welcomes genuine connection wherever it may be found. This is Graceanne's Book is a poignant and even thrilling look at three astonishing children in a small American town in the 1960s. Graceanne and her book will move you and amuse you and amaze you.And maybe even inspire you. AUTHORBIO: P.L. Whitney lives in Florida.