In this book, Nancy Werlin does a fantastic job in being able to compose emotions and conveying them to the reader. She seems to be able to make you feel and want to help each of the children that you read about. Nancy makes you urge to take the children and rid them of their bipolar mother. Nancy makes you think about how you would react in situations that she puts forth; would you run hide flee or fight? Again, Nancy digs deep into our inner humanity and empathy in order to uncover our feelings and exploit us so we feel for these children. The hilly plot is another good aspect of the book; the beauteous and the horrific times all intertwined in a well executed manner. I can see why this book turned out to be a finalist for a National Book Award. I would definitely recommend reading this if you are interested in a page turner that's hard to put down.