Eleven-year-old Larch lives in a trailer park with her drop-dead gorgeous, but very quiet mother. Larch's mother is a real whiz at keeping things fixed in the trailer, but she seems kind of remote; she and Larch never really talk or connect. Larch's father died when Larch was just two years old. She doesn't know how her father died, but she believes there was something fishy about the circumstances of his death. And Larch because her mother is so uncommunicative, Larch may never learn the truth.

Larch copes with her life by mentally dividing everything into two neat columns on a sheet of paper, with a straight line down the middle. In other words, she lives by rules. She's proud that her life's philosophy is, "The rules are the rules." And using this philosophy, Larch is a great student; she always aces her homework. However, drawing up rules is not always such a good plan for living your whole life, as Larch discovers. There are a lot of things the rules can't be applied to, important things like feelings. And sticking to the rules makes Larch self-centered and unkind, just like her mother. Plus, when you're so narrowly focused on the rules, there are a lot of things you don't see.

As Larch's life starts coming apart, she wants the truth more than she wants her rules. In fact, only the truth can set her free from the narrow unkindness of her life. When she lands in some serious trouble with the police and harms a homeless dog who trusted her, she learns that the truth can teach us mercy, and mercy matters more than rules. Will things turn around for Larch? What is the truth she learns about her father? And what happens to the little dog? Find out in this debut novel filled with memorable characters.

   --- Reviewed by Tamara Penny