Like a Sister

Sister cannot say exactly when or where she was when she first saw--heard--that look, and maybe it was sometime at night after she lay down to sloop, but she saw it. Then her eyes sprang wide and her lips parted and she repeated over and over like a sinner's prayer how she would not sorry away like Marnie...
-- From Like a Sister

It is 1956 and Sister is only thirteen years old, but she is a mother to her two younger twin brothers and her toddler sister. Her mother, Marnie, has had a string of boyfriends, and her latest is more interested in building up business at his new caf than he is in raising three children that are not his own. Marnie is involved in the caf as well--but Sister is not exactly sure how. All she knows is that Marnie isn't around very much. Things weren't always this way--at one time they were close, "just like sisters." Now it seems they are strangers, and Sister has noticed that the neighbors are giving each other looks--looks that say that whatever Marnie is up to at the caf , it isn't respectable.

Deciding that she will not follow in Marnie's footsteps, Sister begins to take charge of her life, as best she can, by minding her manners, and by befriending her kindly next-door neighbor, Willa, who seems to Sister to be a fine example of how a mother should be. But then Ray Williams, a respected and powerful man in town, begins to notice the blossoming Sister, and when he realizes that she has no adult supervision, he sets his sights on her. Willa steps in to intervene, and Sister thinks she may have found salvation, but in Like a Sister, all is never what it seems.

A haunting coming-of-age tale, Like a Sister will linger in the minds of readers long after the last page has been turned.