Hansen and Gracie by Olivia Snowe illustrated by Michelle Lamoreaux NY STONE ARCH BOOKS
1 It’s December at the Lakeview Sunrise Group Home for Boys and Girls From the caged window next to our dormitory bunk bed we can see the concrete courtyard covered with fresh snow But no one is thinking about Christmas or presents sledding or huge turkeys in the oven No one is even thinking about gathering mounds of snow into snowmen and no one is thinking about igloos and forts
Not here anyway Lakeview Sunrise Group Home for Boys and Girls is really just a long and lovely way of saying orphanage And this orphanage is as filthy and overcrowded as anything Little Orphan Annie or Oliver Twist ever knew It’s nowhere near any lake or stream unless you count the puddle of sewage overflow that visits the corner of Fifth Street and Roosevelt Avenue each spring And you couldn’t spot a sunrise from here unless you were standing on top of the boarded-up Hurkemeyer Department Store two blocks over It’s the only way you can see over the other run-down gray and brown buildings We should know We live here We are Hansen and Gracie We are twins And we hate it here
