January Hoolihan, immediately after completing seventh grade, goes to live with the grandfather she’s never known. Her punk rocker father died mere months ago from an overdose, and his live-in girlfriend, Sammie, is leaving Manhattan for LA without her. January moves in with Bill Hoolihan on Long Island’s Shelter Island. When Bill warmly welcomes her into his home, she realizes he’s not the “scary” old man others have led her to believe he is. January’s 8-year-old friend Crisscross is on the island as well, having trailed Sammie when she dropped January off. Amazingly resourceful, Crisscross lives on her own until a local food-market owner shows her some compassion. Crisscross is hiding from her alleged uncle, Felix, a biker. He’s been looking for Crisscross, who’d rather stay right where she is. Wisoff’s absorbing tale is stylized as January’s eighth-grade assignment—in the conceit of the novel, she’s writing about what she did over her summer vacation. Intriguingly, the story doesn’t only follow her first-person narrative, since her post-summer “composition fact-gathering” provides her with others’ perspectives. For example, January’s foulmouthed former schoolmate Pigface (his hip-hop handle) witnesses several interactions between Sammie and Felix in Manhattan. January’s and Crisscross’s stories are equally compelling; they each find new families in entirely different ways. The often-grim narrative pulls no punches when dealing with such issues as child abuse and habitual drug use, but it hits upbeat notes, too, from various characters’ warmhearted actions to touches of humor; Crisscross pretends to be a Girl Scout selling cookies while her uniform is “in the wash. A bear pooped on it at the zoo.” Readers will surely look forward to more from these girls in the planned sequel.