Home Is With Our Family — Joyce Hansen

MARIA PETERS is looking forward to turning thirteen. She imagines enjoying new adult prestige and responsibility, such as attending abolitionist meetings and listening to inspiring speakers like Sojourner Truth. She doesn't bank on all the unexpected changes that her new year will bring, however. For starters, the City of New York wants to turn her community into a big park. Now that Maria has made a new friend, she wants more than ever to stay where she is. But Maria discovers that her friend may have issues even more dire than being thrown out of her home. Will Maria be able to save her own home and help her friend? Or will she end up by ruing the day she turned thirteen?