Sometimes you have to start where it all stops

On a perfect spring afternoon, May, Brooks, and Palmer Gold returned home to find an ambulance in front of their house and a swarm of family friends trying to tell them some terrible news. May barely remembers it all. Why would you want to remember every detail of the day your father died right in the garage, sitting behind the wheel of his prized golden Firebird convertible?

A year later, May is still picking up the pieces. Her family is broke, and the house is a wreck. Her older sister Brooks has given up on her main passion, softball, and drinks all the time. Her little sister Palmer is becoming a mute weirdo. And no one is around to teach May to drive, except for her life-long nemesis, Pete. It’s like the entire universe is conspiring against her.

The Gold sisters have been changed irrevocably, and they are all but lost to one another, until the key is found. The key to their father’s Pontiac Firebird.

• ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2004
• New York Public Library “Books for the Teen Age 2005”
• Junior Library Guild 2004 YA pick
• Borders Original Voices program selection

“Poignant and laced with wry humor… This is a wonderfully moving and entertaining novel full of authentic characters and emotions.”
— School Library Journal, starred review

“A very special, unexpected coming-of-age novel.”
— Booklist, starred review