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Ruby used to call her 12-year-old daughter Pearl her "little gem," but Pearl knows better. If she were really "a gem," her mother wouldn't have dumped her at her aunt Ivy's house in Georgia and driven off into the dust. Once Pearl realizes her mom didn't just run to the 7-Eleven for cigarettes, she reluctantly settles in, warily observing her generous, loving Aunt Ivy--half-hoping her crazy, ... More

Ruby used to call her 12-year-old daughter Pearl her "little gem," but Pearl knows better. If she were really "a gem," her mother wouldn't have dumped her at her aunt Ivy's house in Georgia and driven off into the dust. Once Pearl realizes her mom didn't just run to the 7-Eleven for cigarettes, she reluctantly settles in, warily observing her generous, loving Aunt Ivy--half-hoping her crazy, irresponsible mother comes back soon and half-hoping she never comes back at all.

Rural Georgia offers few distractions for a girl from Tallahassee, but Pearl does meet the strange Moonpie, an 11-year-old boy with transparent skin and cantaloupe-colored hair who lives in a ramshackle house with his dying grandmother Mama Nell. With the help of Aunt Ivy, Mama Nell, and Moonpie, Pearl stitches together clues to her own identity as she learns about her grandparents and her own mother who everyone says "had the devil in her." Pearl is the spitting image of this "devil girl." Does that mean she is fated to repeat her mistakes?

Thanks to Barbara O'Connor's clean, honest prose, readers will fully identify with Pearl's mixture of resentment and longing. What will happen if her mother never comes back? What if she does? There are no pat answers served up in this well-crafted, down-home, straight-talking story about the yearning for love. (Ages 10 and older) --Karin Snelson

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