Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt

Amazon summary: "“It’s still true.” That’s the first thing James Tillerman says to his older sister, Dicey, every morning. It’s still true that their mother has abandoned the four Tillermans in a mall parking lot somewhere in the middle of Connecticut. It’s still true that they have to find their own way to Great-aunt Cilla’s house in Bridgeport. It’s still true that they need to spend as little as possible on food and seek shelter anywhere that is out of view of the authorities. It’s still true that the only way they can hope to all stay together is to just keep moving forward. Deep down, Dicey hopes they can find someone to trust, someone who will take them in and love them. But she’s afraid it’s just too much to hope for...."

This as not, as you can probably tell from the summary, a fantasy book. So no, that is not the only type of book that I will read. This sort of story is waaaaaaaaaaaay up there on the interest scale next to fantasy books. You know, the whole growing-up-with-hardships-and-overcoming-them kind of thing. Of course, this also has the added bonus of survival and journeying thrown in! I actually read this for the first time quite a while ago--five, maybe six years ago? I believe I had been assigned to read A Solitary Blue (the third book in the series) for summer reading and loved it so much that I had to read the others. Crazy, I know. An assigned book that's actually good--and not horribly depressing (besides Shakespeare which, now that I think about it, can be pretty depressing too...)! The reason I came back to it now is that for the past few years it has been nagging at my memory. Occasionally I would think something like, 'hmmmm... I really loved that one book where the girl got left in the parking lot with her siblings...' and then totally forget about it for a few months. Well, a couple of days ago that same thing happened to me but this time I got a terrible urge to read it. Of course, I had totally forgotten the title, the author, and the characters' names so I put my faith in a google search and voila! After a bit of searching I found it. I owe it all to the fact that it's a pretty popular book--otherwise I'm quite sure that I wouldn't have found it (because, along with this book, there was another one that I remembered and tried looking for but couldn't find). But anyways, I ended up putting the book I was in the middle of reading on hold while I read this one. I feel like I've read the whole series but since it was so long ago, I'm going to read them all again. After I finish the book I abandoned that is.

Anyway, by this point you probably already know my opinion on the book--I freaking adore it! I just crave books like these. It does involve a lot of getting into Dicey's head, but that's part of what makes me love it so much. So, it may not be your cup of tea, but it certainly is mine!