"Hope" is a wonderful novel about grinding poverty, poetry, and the importance of friendship narrated by precocious fifth grader Star Mackie. A conscientious student and good writer, Star is ostracized at her new school when she tells her class she lives in a trailer park. She can鈥檛 find any good friends and adults, she says, treat her 鈥渓ike a juvenile delinquent.鈥� If not for her adored older sister and a new Emily Dickinson club at school, Star isn鈥檛 sure what she would do. The novel is reminiscent of children鈥檚 classics like Katherine Patterson鈥檚 award-winning "The Great Gilly Hopkins." (Ages 8 to 12)
