What I Call Life

WHAT I CALL LIFE

By: Jill Wolfson

SUMMARY

Cal Lavender is not your typical eleven-year-old girl. Her mother has had "episodes" for awhile. But when she has one in the library, Cal's life is turned upside down. Suddenly, Cal finds herself in a group home for foster children. Cal keeps telling herself that this can't be HER life.

At the group home, Cal meets a group of other girls - all of them far from normal. Amber is the strangest because she pulls out her own hair! Whitney talks A LOT and Cal finds it annoying. Fern is either giggling or crying. There is no in-between with Fern!

Cal finds a fmily in these girls. All with tragic pasts, they find something they can all relate to. There is one character who holds the story together. She is The Knitting Lady.

The Knitting Lady teaches the girls to knit and takes care of them. She makes up a story about Lillian that teaches the girls an important lesson. The lesson is that they must stick together. So, it makes sense that when Whitney wants to find her sister, the other girls join her in the search.

Eventually, Cal is returned to her mother and the story comes to an end.

REVIEW

This book contained a story within a story. The Knitting Lady's story was pretty unusual and kept my attention. Lillian, in The Knitting Lady's story, was really a combination of the girls in the group home. She had a bit of each of their personalities in her. I wonder if The Knitting Lady just made up the story or if it was real. I think it was real!

The bigger story of Cal was sad at first - and you all know how I feel about sad stories - I don't care for them. BUT, I kept reading and was pleased to read that Cal's life did get better.

Cal had to warm up to the other girls and, once she did, she saw that her first impressions were wrong. I like to see a character grow like this. Cal and the other girls seemed closer than some siblings because they had a common thread in their dark pasts.

Although Cal was losing contact with the group home girls, she was happy to be returning to her mother. I can picture Cal growing up to be a successful leader.

RATING

4 Plot
5 Characters
4 Attention Grabbing
4 Girlie-Meter
3 Ending

20 TOTAL

5 STARS

Melina - perfectly happy with her Travis (her little brother)