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Gr 8-Up Janie's Mama Linda abandoned her when she was four, but the heroin-addicted woman shows up at odd times, plucking the child out of her foster home but always dropping her back. Janie's dearest friend is a fellow foster child who also lives at the "stink house." Harmon, an African American, has a collection of blues tapes that he and Janie listen to over and over again. Janie clings to him and to "the ladies," whose music churns through her soul, and, despite her blond hair and blue eyes, she decides she ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at age four, Janie lands in her first foster home, run by abusive parents Patsy and Pete. Janie becomes fast friends with her sweet-natured foster brother Harmon, a shy black boy who holds tight to a shoebox full of cassettes. Together Janie and Harmon listen to the tapes and fall in love with "the ladies," jazz and R&B singers Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Billie Holiday. All the warmth Janie knows comes from the ladies and Harmon, and from the social worker who brings them to her black church on Sundays, where Janie discovers her own amazing singing voice. Pale, blonde Janie decides she doe...Log In or Sign Up to Read More