Twelve-year-old Cady Bennett has been in and out of foster care since her mom died and her father, who is alcoholic, has been unable to care for her. Homeless in San Diego, she ends up in a child welfare center and is sent to a small mountain town to live with her gruff Aunt Shell (who was once a Marine) and Shell’s partner Suzanne.
Slowly, she begins to feel more at home and to make some friends, and she and Shell bond over a love of The Great British Bake Off. She even sets a personal goal of baking 1000 pies for Aunt Shell’s pie shop. When she finds out that the shop is failing, however, she dedicates herself to saving the first place that’s ever given her stability. She enlists the help of her new friend Jay, whose family is undocumented and also surviving largely because of the employment Shell’s shop provides. While the story involves some difficult subjects, Cady’s first-person narrative is engaging and the issues never overwhelm. She learns to open up to others and not let her past define her, while also not forgetting it, ultimately offering readers a sweet, well-baked story of friendship and personal growth.
Cady describes her skin as “olive”; her grandfather was Mexican, and the rest of her family is presumed White.
