Mary Wolf — Cynthia D. Grant

Permanently on the road, a teenage girl struggles to keep her family together

Sixteen-year-old Mary Wolf can remember when her family lived in a house, when her father was a successful insurance executive who would jump through sprinklers with his briefcase just to make her laugh. But he never got back on his feet after his business collapsed, and he had to move the whole Wolf family into a giant RV, taking them on the road for a permanent “vacation.” Now he drives Mary, her pregnant mother, and her three little sisters from city to city, where they stay at campgrounds and parks with other homeless people, never remaining in one place for long.

Mary's mother has turned to petty theft to make ends meet and her dad loses his temper too much to hold down a job, but both insist that everything is going to be fine. Watching her parents increasingly deny the reality of their situation, Mary can feel it: Her whole family is coming to the end of a road.