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"In a book so poignant and truthful that it's difficult to read, Franklin turns a keen eye on the subject of depression and its effects on a family. For Trina Stenkawsky, the end of sixth grade and the summer before seventh are a time of joyous blossoming and of deep sorrow. The pride of earning a coveted school prize, getting her period, and going to her first school dance is tempered by her father's increasingly strange behavior and her mother's preoccupation with her husband and the late-in-life child she carries. Franklin's depiction of Trina's terror is solid and extraordinarily convincing--there's no mistaking the child's shock when she finds her father lying in the dirt, or the confusing mix of relief and guilt she feels when he goes to the hospital. But there's promise as well as pain in Trina's story: it emerges with the birth of Trina's new sister, with the father's decision not to kill himself after all, and in the exceptionally wonderful portrayal of Trina's friendship with generous, good-hearted Miranda." Publishers Weekly
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