This is my all-time favorite book. It is one of those books you sleep with once you finish rereading it for the seventh time.

I am 13, and I think the first time I read this book was when I was around 7. Obviously, I barely understood the themes of foster-care in it, but I still liked it enough to get it again at the library when I saw it a few years later. I have now read it at least eight times; I usually read it at least once a year. (This is my first real review, so please excuse my wild thoughts)

Themes: Friendship, Foster-care, Orphans, Abandonment

"When I was just a baby, a ghost saved my life. This is according to my Granny Lane, who I lived with at the time in a trailer on Roan Mountain." (to give an even greater show of how much I love this book, I memorized that line)

Granny Lane isn't Maddie's real grandmother. She's just the "old lady who lived next door when [Maddie's] mama decided to take a break from baby-raising." Since Granny Lane got diabetes when Maddie was eight, she's been shuffled to lots of foster homes, most recently, the East Tennessee Children's Home.

One of my favorite things about this book it that the story has each character's stories woven in throughout the book as they sit together in their homemade fort, basically a one room house. Chapter 17 is my favorite story. It's so sad, but with so much positivity that you can't help but love the characters even more. It's fantastic.

I just hate the ending. We need another book! Mrs. Dowell, if you are reading this, hear our plea for more of Maddie's story! Does Maddie go to live with Penny? Do she and Murphy ever make up? Can Murphy really FLY?!