Delacorte Press Prize

After Katherine Donovan's alcoholic, divorced mother is fired from her job and takes to her room for weeks, Katherine is left with sole responsibility for her three younger siblings. Determined to keep her family together, Katherine decides not to tell anyone primarily because Alisa, the youngest child, does not have the same father that the older children have and Katherine fears she would be sent to a foster home. Food runs low, money disappears quickly, and Alisa is sent home from third grade because she wanders off in search of Narnia where she knows she'll find help for her mother. A teacher eventually discovers Katherine's situation and arranges to send all the children to the older childrens' father.