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Gr 7-Up Shelby, 13, and her three sisters, ages 16, 8, and 6, have different fathers. They live in early-1980s Chicago with their free-spirited mother, Helen, a striking and beauty-obsessed Japanese bombshell. Helen is a cult of personality unto herself, and the older girls happily care for the younger ones while Mom collects boyfriends. When she is in a disfiguring car accident, the girls separate to live with their fathers. Shelby's dad is a kind, level-headed Japanese greenhorn, while six-year-old Maddie's, ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Set in the early 1980s, Kadohata's novel is narrated by Shelby, one of four close-knit sisters who follow their gorgeous but lonely mom as she shifts from man to man, place to place. It's all they've ever known, and it's how they came to be: Shelby informs readers that her oft-used line is, "My mother had four daughters by four different men." Mom Helen is Japanese Americ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Set in the early 1980s, Kadohata's novel is narrated by thirteen-year-old Shelby, one of four close-knit sisters who fo...Log In or Sign Up to Read More