Brutally honest, yet warmly life-affirming, Joan Fern Shaw's collection masterfully invokes the tremendous tension and tenderness that exists in the life of a courageous little girl. told in a series of linked episodes, this is the story of a young girl who learns about life the hard way. Her parents are drunk and abusive, their home deprived. The child must create her own world from fleeting moments of comfort and enchantment. These are her words, her story.