New Releases by George Ella Lyon

The oldest girl in a large, poor Kentucky family has to quit school to take care of the house and new baby after her mother''s difficult delivery.

" "I don''t agree with all the choices people make," says the author. "You probably won''t either. My job is to let them tell their stories." And so she does in these thirteen warm, funny, and sad short stories about people making hard decisions for themselves and for their families: Like Iona, who accidentally accepts a marriage proposal And Daryll, just about to graduate from high school, whose mother is eager for him to "make something" of himself. And Lexie and Jeb, deep in debt and already struggling to feed their six children, who find out a seventh is on the way.

When Sumi''s brother leaves for boarding school, her best friend moves away, her grandfather dies, and her mother withdraws into grief, Sumi finds herself facing the beginning of adolescence alone and afraid.