To this day, my sister insists it was nothing more than the unrelenting heat that drove us to do what we did that summer, but that’s just Troo yanking my chain the way she always has. Deep down, she knows as well as I do that it wasn’t anything as mundane as the weather. It was the hand of the Almighty that shoved us off the straight and narrow path…
Whistling in the Dark—a national bestseller—captivated readers with the story of ten-year-old Sally O’Malley and her sister, Troo, during Milwaukee’s summer of 1959. Now it’s one year later, and Sally, who made a deathbed promise to her daddy to keep Troo safe, is having a hard time honoring her vow. Her sister is growing increasingly rebellious amid a string of home burglaries, the escape from reform school of a nemesis, and the mysterious disappearance of an orphan—events that have the entire neighborhood on edge. And in that tense, hot summer, Sally will have to ground her flights of imagination, and barter her waning innocence, in order to sort the truths from the lies to protect her sister and herself.
Kagen returns with the sequel to her national bestselling debut, "Whistling in the Dark" with the story of 10-year-old Sally O'Malley who remains deeply traumatized by the sudden death of her daddy and her near escape from a murderer and molester the previous summer.
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Good Graces deftly dwells in ’60’s Milwaukee. Through her preteen narrator, Sally O’Malley, she (Kagen) evokes the joys, sorrows and complexities of growing up…” —
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel“A beautifully woven story…You will weep for and cheer on the O’Malley sisters…[and] immediately miss them once the last page is turned.” —
Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of These Things Hidden“Moving, funny, and full of unexpected delights, this is one sequel that just might be even better than the original gem. Kagen crafts a gorgeous page turner about love, loss and loyalty, all told in the sparkling voices of two extraordinary sisters.” —
Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You“For all the praise garnered for
Whistling in the Dark,
Good Graces more than lives up to its predecessor.” —
School Library Journal“Spend happy hours following the O’Malley sisters through the sweltering summer of 1960 on Milwaukee’s West Side. This humorous, passionate novel of childhood is full of evocative local detail and the lives of wild, smart children.” —
Milwaukee Magazine 