For a year, Tess has been trying to get used to her new stepfamily, but it just isn’t working. When a school project that she labored over is accidentally destroyed by her stepsister, and her dad and stepmom don’t seem to care at all, Tess has finally had it. She decides to run away and go live with her mom on the other side of Tucson. On the long walk there she acquires an unexpected companion: a gray-striped cat that follows her along the desert road. But nothing goes as planned after Tess and the cat finally reach Mom’s condo. Her mother seems more concerned with herself than with Tess, and she has a definite aversion to cats. Luckily for Tess, her new feline companion proves to be a reassuring presence as she struggles to face some difficult truths about herself and her family. In this moving and realistic story, the unconditional love of an animal helps to heal a wounded teen.
Author
C.S. (Carole) Adler moved to Tucson, Arizona, after spending most of her life in upstate New York. She was an English teacher at Niskayuna Middle School for nearly a decade. She is a passionate tennis player, grandmother, and nature lover, and has been a full-time writer since the publication of her first book,The Magic of the Glits, in 1979. That book won both the William Allen White Award and the Golden Kite Award. Her bookThe Shell Lady’s Daughter was chosen by the A.L.A. as a best young adult book of l983. With Westie and the Tin Man won the Children’s Book Award of the Child Study Committee in l986, and that committee has commended many of Adler’s books. Split Sisters in l987 and Ghost Brother in 1991 were I.R.A. Children’s Choices selections. One Sister Too Many was on the 1991 Young Adults’ Choices list. Always and Forever Friends and Eddie’s Blue Winged Dragon were on a 1991 I.R.A. 99 Favorite Paperbacks list. Many of her books have been on state lists and have also been published in Japan, Germany, England, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, and France.
