by Marjorie Celona (Get the Book)Set on Vancouver Island, Celona's compelling first novel opens with a desperate young mother abandoning her newborn girl on the front steps of the Victoria YMCA. Passed back and forth, cradled in one set of arms then another, the child is first granted the name Shandi, then Samantha, and later, Shannon. One foster mother rewards Shannon with a cube of cheese if she manages to sit still, but the restless three-year-old is more often met by abuse and eventually banished to live with another family. At age five, Shannon is adopted by Miranda, a single mother whose only expectations of her daughter are fairness, kindness, and respect. While Shannon thrives living in this caring household, she struggles to reconcile the pain of her unknown past. Humorously self-deprecating (I'm not hideous, but I'm definitely a cross between Shirley Temple and a pug), teenage Shannon embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery. This is at once a moving coming-of-age story full of fresh starts, a haunting family story full of heavy disappointments, and an extraordinarily quiet story full of hope. --Booklist
