A Smidgen of Sky

Gr 3–6—Piper Lee DeLuna thinks that life with her single mom is just fine. When she was six, her pilot father's plane went down over the Atlantic and he was never found, but she's sure that he'll come back someday. Now her mother is getting remarried, and Piper worries that once Mama gets a new last name, Daddy will never find them. Worse, her stepfather-to-be has a bratty daughter named Ginger, and Piper Lee can't imagine them ever being sisters. She comes up with a plan to stop the wedding-first, she locates Ginger's birth mother, who left years ago, hoping the woman will come back. Next she joins an online group looking for information about her lost father. When her plan actually works-in an almost-dangerous way-Piper Lee doesn't feel the happiness she so expected, and she begins to question herself and her memories. Winget's time period is ambiguous, but the gentle story is compelling, and Piper Lee is an instantly likable, flawed character with a good heart. Hand this one to kids who want realistic fiction with just a dash of excitement.—Jamie Kallio, Orland Park Public Library, IL