After walking out of her life years before, Apple’s mom is back and seems to understand 14-year-old Apple’s desire for independence far better than strict and loving Nana. So Apple says yes to living with her mother. It’s only after she arrives at her mom’s apartment that Apple learns she has a half-sister, 10-year-old Rain. Rain, who has emotional issues, refuses to go to school. Their mom’s partying (in which she includes Apple) and financial situation both get worse, and more and more Apple is responsible for her sister. While parts of this novel are predictable—Apple’s initial resentment of Rain turns to love; Apple’s new friend Del becomes the steadfast person she relies on; things with her unreliable mom get steadily worse before Apple can bring herself to tell Nana the truth—the emotion across the story arc is richly and honestly portrayed. The book is divided into sections (Solitude, Fear, War, Love, Disappointment, Poetry), each one aligned to the theme of one of the poems Apple’s English class is studying with their marvelous teacher. The poems Apple writes for her assignments, also aligned to the themes, become honest expressions of the ways things are spiraling out of control. By novel’s end, Apple’s emerging voice as a young poet is something to celebrate along with relief at a safer future for the sisters back with Nana. (Age 12 and older)

Fourteen-year-old Apple, abandoned by her mother at age 3, is being smothered by an overprotective grandmother. When her actress mother unexpectantly returns from America and walks back into her life, Apple is smitten, and chooses to move into the tiny apartment with her, much to her grandmother's worry and anger. What her mother, who has a penchant for parties, cigarettes, and alcohol has failed to tell Apple, is that she has a sister, 10-year-old Rain, and that she needs Apple to help take care of her. Rain is a disturbed child, who cares for her doll as a real baby, resents having been uprooted from her home in the US, and refuses to go to school. As the situation deteriorates, the girls' mother sets off for an audition, not to return for 3 days. Rain, in her anger and hurt runs away, and Apple is left to rely on a new friend, Del, to find her sister, keep the truth from her grandmother, and hold life together until her mother returns -- if she ever does. Told from Apple's point of view, the reader learns about her family, friends, fears, and options in life, only as Apple does. The emotions are palpable and the characters are painted as multi-dimensional humans the reader will grow to love.

England. Originally published in England by Bloomsbury in 2014. Published in the United States by Bloomsbury in 2015.