Dooley, Sarah

When her last family member dies in a fire, Sasha is placed in foster care but is intent on leaving her small West Virginia mining town, until she makes a new friend at school and learns how to manage her grief through poetry.

Two sisters take off on a wild road trip to fulfill their late mother's dying wish in this poignant middle grade tale.

"When her brother dies in a fire, Sasha Harless has no one left, and nowhere to turn. After her father died in the mines and her mother ran off, he was her last caretaker. They'd always dreamed of leaving Caboose, West Virginia together someday, but instead she's in foster care, feeling more stuck and broken than ever. But then hen Sasha discovers family she didn't know she had, and she finally has something to hold onto, especially sweet little Mikey, who's just as broken as she is. Sasha even makes her first friend at school, and is slowly learning to cope with her brother's death through writing poetry, finding a new way to express herself when spoken words just won't do. But when tragedy strikes the mine her cousin works in, Sasha fears the worst and takes Mikey and runs, with no plans to return"--OCLC.

Olivia "Livvie" Owen, an autistic girl who suffers from destructive outbursts, learns her family is going to be evicted once again because of her behavior and decides they should move back to the one place where she believes they were all happy, but that house was burnt down by Livvie and her parents and sister struggle to understand her plan.

Twelve-year-old Ember, living in a campground after her trailer home is burnt to the ground by a fire most likely set by her best friend, whose father believes her family members are witches, finds comfort floating in the middle of the campground's lake, while trying to figure out how she is going to make a fresh start.