Whether she likes it or not, ten-year-old Piper Lee DeLuna is about to get a new family. Four years after the plane Piper's daddy was piloting disappeared, her mama is remarrying. The way Piper sees it, Mama's being plain disloyal. Besides, who'd want to get stuck with a prison guard for a stepdad and that weenie, Ginger, for a stepsister? But when Piper Lee hatches a foolproof plan to get the wedding called off, it quickly spirals out of control. And by the time Piper realizes what she's done--and just how much she really cares about her new family--it might be too late. From the author of the award winning middle grade, A Million Ways Home , comes this hilarious and heartwarming tale of new families and new beginnings. Gr 3-6-Piper Lee DeLuna thinks that life with her single mom is just fine. When she was six, her pilot father's plane went down over the Atlantic and he was never found, but she's sure that he'll come back someday. Now her mother is getting remarried, and Piper worries that once Mama gets a new last name, Daddy will never find them. Worse, her stepfather-to-be has a bratty daughter named Ginger, and Piper Lee can't imagine them ever being sisters. She comes up with a plan to stop the wedding-first, she locates Ginger's birth mother, who left years ago, hoping the woman will come back. Next she joins an online group looking for information about her lost father. When her plan actually works-in an almost-dangerous way-Piper Lee doesn't feel the happiness she so expected, and she begins to question herself and her memories. Winget's time period is ambiguous, but the gentle story is compelling, and Piper Lee is an instantly likable, flawed character with a good heart. Hand this one to kids who want realistic fiction with just a dash of excitement.-Jamie Kallio, Orland Park Public Library, ILα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Ten-year-old Piper Lee DeLuna loves planes, which is no surprise given that her daddy was a pilot and named her after his aircraft. But four years prior, his plane disappeared over the ocean, and now her mama is getting remarried to a man with a 10-year-old of his own. Piper still holds out a smidgen of hope that her daddy is just missing and not dead (“sometimes miracles happen”), and so she launches into efforts to keep mama and Ben from walking down the aisle. Winget’s debut touches on themes familiar to middle-grade lit—from the fact that Piper blames herself for her daddy’s disappearance to her reluctance to give up the dream of his return to her difficulties envisioning a new future. This sweet story has an old-fashioned feel, and while it mostly grazes the surface of issues, and the ending feels somewhat contrived, it may speak to all those children out there hoping against hope that, somehow, mom and dad will find their way back to each other. Grades 4-6. --Ann Kelley Indie-Bound ABC New Voices Pick (2012) I read this lovely middle-grade so that I could do an interview with the author for The Mixed Up Files blog. I hope many, many readers discover this gem! Sydney Salter, YA author My Grandma brought me your book as a gift. Over the past two days in my free time I read it. I love it! You are an excellent book writer and I hope you will write more. Gaby P, California Many people have asked if A Smidgen of Sky and A Sliver of Sun are based on my own experience, and I usually say yes and no. Yes because I have been a step mom since 1992 when I stepped into a ready made family and learned first hand the unique and challenging dynamics of blended families. And no, in that Piper Lee and my other characters are purely fictional. But I hope the many young readers in Piper Lee's situation will be able to relate to her conflicting emotions, and realize that sometimes, if you can push aside your fears and be open to new possibilities, wonderful things can happen. Mama sent me to bed at ten o'clock, but it was still too hot to sleep. I lay there on top of my covers, fretting over how Mama would skin me alive when she found out about my clawed dress. But then a shaft of moonlight shone across my bed. I looked out my window. I could see only a smidgen of sky, but it was enough to make me think of Daddy. He was my favorite thing to think about before I went to sleep at night. I closed my eyes real tight and heard his deep, chuckling laugh. But Ben laughed like that, too. Was I hearing Daddy's laugh or Ben's? I flipped over, trying to get comfortable. In just two months, if I couldn't find a way to change her mind, Mama would become Mrs. Ben Hutchings and I"d still be Piper Lee DeLuna. Our names wouldn't match anymore. Even our address would change when we moved to Ben's house. If Daddy came back, how would he ever find us? Dianna Dorisi Winget is the author of the 2016-17 William Allen White and Mark Twain award winner A Million Ways Home (Scholastic Press). She is also the author