Cricket Readers Recommend

10-year old Mandy doesn't remember every living anywhere besides the old stone orphanage. She has grown up there with the other children and Matron, and everyone is kind to her, but she's always felt something important is missing from her life. Then one day, out of curiousity, she decides to climb over the stone wall at the back of the orphanage to see what's on the other side. At first she thinks it's all just woods, but then she makes a discovery that stops her in her tracks -- a little abandoned cottage. On an impulse, she decides to fix it up and make it her own. Over the next several months, she tends the garden and keeps house, but her guilt is slowly building. In order to keep her cottage secret, she has to lie and sometimes steal, but she figures it's worth it. Then one stormy night, Mandy becomes dreadfully sick at the cottage, and no one knows how to find her -- or so she thinks.

It's a book about love and acceptance and family that you don't want to miss. And, yes, it's by the same Julie Andrews who starred in The Sound of Music! Her writing is as good as her singing!