Sister Spider Knows All

"Americans tend to avoid discussing class differences, and this charming story about a girl who lives in a trailer with her chain-smoking, obese grandmother is something out of the ordinary... The lines between the classes become somewhat blurred and we understand that life is pretty much that way, and that a loving, close family is a treasure whatever circumstances they are living in." Kliatt "Delivered in a wry voice that swings from laugh-out-loud funny to wrenching sadness, Rox's narrative is neither sentimental nor condescending, and details of place, people, and class conflict emerge in plain poetic imagery... " Booklist "...a richly drawn story of human dynamics, offering both support for people as they are and hope for their growth." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "A Best of 2003 for Young Readers: Dead-on dialogue and strong, complex characters." The Washington Post * 2003 Parents' Choice Recommended Award * 2003 Young Adult Top Forty List (PA)

When Roxanne discovers her absent mother’s teenage diary, she finds some painful but important answers to the unsolved questions of her past and possibilities for a different future.
For twelve-year-old Rox, there are two things in life she can count on: her beloved grandmother, Mimi, and her weekend job at the flea market. But outside this fragile weekend world, she’s lost. A so-so student with few aspirations for higher education, she feels out of place at school. And who is she anyway? Her teenage mother left when she was only three months old and her father’s identity is a mystery. And no one, least of all Mimi, will talk about what happened.
But then her cousin John Martin brings home a girlfriend from college who has very different ideas about the way life works. And when Rox discovers her mother’s teenage diary, she begins discovering some answers to her past and her future.
With gentle wit and an uncanny sensitivity, author Adrian Fogelin captures the fragility of life’s certainties in this moving novel of an adolescent girl’s struggles to find her way in the world.