Three Pennies
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A girl in foster care tries to find her birth mother before she loses her forever in this “tender tale” (School Library Journal, starred review) about last chances and new opportunities.
For a kid bouncing from foster home to foster home, The Book of Changes is the perfect companion. That’s why Marin carries three pennies and a pocket-sized I Ching with her everywhere she goes. Yet when everything in her life suddenly starts changing—like landing in a foster home that feels like somewhere she could stay, maybe forever—the pennies don’t have any answers for her.
Marin is positive that all the wrongs in her life will be made right if only she can find her birth mother and convince her that they belong together. Marin is close, oh so close—until she gets some unwelcome news and her resolve, like the uneasy earth far beneath the city of San Francisco, is shaken.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In San Francisco, a whisper of a girl learns to tread lightly in life as she navigates being a foster child. Marin Greene, 11, was abandoned at age four by her biological mother and has longed for a reunion ever since. A kind, overworked social worker wants to help Marin become legally adopted, but Marin believes that most adults don't understand what she needs most. Meanwhile, an owl decides to keep watch over Marin, though she is unaware of the bird. Forces of nature are front and center, between impending earthquakes and the beckoning sea and cliffs, as is Marin's devotion to her few treasured possessions: three pennies, a ceramic piggy bank, and her copy of the I Ching. Crowder's (A Nearer Moon) sensitive tale has a poetic, lyrical quality that should entrance readers; most chapters are no longer than a page or two, shifting attention among characters (and, at times, switching to second person) in a way that creates a sense of community and togetherness. Marin is resourceful, determined, and brave, and although her life is not easy, her hope is powerfully felt. Ages 8 12.
