Grace Morris Gleitzman (Penguin Books)This is one of the best books that I have read this year. It was consumed on a recent Sunday morning in one sitting. This is a powerful, rivetting read and just absorbing.
Grace is eleven years old. She lives in a strictly religious community where much of what happens to its members, including her family, is decided for them. Like many eleven year olds Grace is asking questions and becoming an independent thinker ... traits that get her into very deep trouble. Her loving father, who answers his daughter's questions honestly, causes the elders to brandish him as evil and expell him from the church. Grace, though, attempts to right the wrong (with the aide of a tow truck driver and his son), to stay in the church and to keep her family together.
See Morris speak at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89ANChOBUE8
