The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

The fact that the narrator of this story is twelve year old "Bean" Holladay made it read almost like a young adult novel although there is nothing childlike about her life.  Her mother, Charlotte, has left Bean and her fifteen year old sister Liz yet again in their decrepit California home with a supply of pot pies and the promise to return a grand musical success.  Finally, when they are left with just enough money for more pot pies or bus tickets back to the family home in Virgina, they leave a note for their mom and get on the bus.  Once a prominent family, they find one remaining uncle living in a much decayed version of the former mansion.  Mom moves in and out of their lives for the next year and Uncle Tinsley begins to rejoin the society that has abandoned him.  Then the girls find themselves taking on the powerful Mr. Maddox, the current manager of the textile mill that employs most of the town and was once owned by the Holladay family.  Even small towns can struggle with big themes like - Is it OK to do the wrong thing for the right reasons?  Is blood, especially very dysfunctional blood, always thicker than water?  And, of course, the fact that Bean's name is really Jean makes you wonder just how far away this supposedly fictional tale has moved from Walls previous memoirs?