A book about a girl named Cal Lavender. She is taken away after the mental
breakdown her mother had in the middle of the public library. She is sent and
driven by the police officer, Officer Quiggly, to a group home where they keep
girls at when their lives had been ruined. The guardian is known as The Knitting
Lady. The girls there are Monica, whiny and full of compliants; Fern, nonstop giggler
who has a black eye which goes away by the time the book ends; Amber, no-haired, smart,
and very shy; Whitney, hasty, lively, and determined to find her long-seperated sister
which may or may not exist. Cal Lavender is dfferent;she is not a whiner, not a fusser,
not a complainer, shows no emotion what-so-ever, and is very organized. The Knitting
Lady tell many stories including the one about Amber, the rock, the one about Brenda,
and the one about Lilian, Brenda’s mother. In between all that, Cal Lavender still
thinks she is going home any minute now, but then meets with Mrs. S, the social worker
as Whitney calls her, that Cal is only going home if her mother can be a mother,
take care of Cal and Cal not taking care of her. During that conversation Whitney
just happens to be eavesdropping and heard the whole thing. Whitney checks some files
after the social worker leaves for a while to see if there are any files of her sister.
Into the story, Cal learns how to knit and wants to have the longest piece of work.
That is used later on. Sometime later, Whitney makes a plan for them to go find her
sister. Cal Lavender, on the other hand, doesn’t want to go which at the pool she said
she wasn’t going. They all turn on her for a bit then give her the silent treatment.
They do that for a couple of days and Whitney calls of the search just because of that.
More days pass and the search is back on. Cal finds out that she doesn’t have a sister
but they still go anyways. When they got there, Amber backs Whitney up saying good
things that isn’t even real. The Knitting Lady finishes the story about Lillian’s life
outside and wraps everyone with Cal’s piece of work. Cal Lanvender finally goes home.