As a young black girl I had to face many obstacles imposed by poverty and circumstance, while growing up on the south-side of Chicago in the early sixties. This book, written for MG and YA chronicles the first twelve years of my life. The story of Sandy (me) begins in Hooks, Texas with my grandmother Minnie Bell. My mother leaves Sandy (3) and my older sister Glory (5) in her care to go look for work in Chicago. Glory, who everyone calls the “silent sister”, remains a mystery to Sandy, who longs for the times they shared everything. When Sandy is seven, they are both sent by train to live with their mother Janetta Mae in the “big city” of Chicago. Sandy's treasured possession is a rag doll, 'Miss Becky', that her grandmother made from things that she'd found in the rag pile, a local dump near their house. Her mother, who Sandy calls Janetta Mae, is cold and distant. She really has no idea how to connect with her children since she was barely out of her teens when they were born. She'd much rather go out with her girlfriends and have a good time. After a year, Sandy becomes fed up and asks to go back home to her 'real' mother Minnie Bell. After Janetta Mae loses her job at the Dixie Cup factory, she sends them both back to live with Grandma. But her life in Hooks is not all a bed of roses. One obstacle is Peggy Lomax, the ten year old tyrant that lives down the street. Sandy admires her for her beauty, charm and new bike, but soon realizes what she sees on the outside, bares little resemblance to her true nature. And then there's Leroy, the pesky seven year old who she hates because of his constant teasing. After a scary encounter one night with a ghost on Johnson's bridge, she finds out who her true friends really are. As Sandy grows older, Grandma thinks it's time for her to be baptized. Sandy has no idea that by raising her hand in church, she will be going down to a river filled with creepy crawly things and getting dunked. When her grandmother explains that after she gets baptized she will have to stop cussing, lying and stealing, she wonders how this is going to be possible. Everything changes when Janetta Mae, wants to bring them back to Chicago. No amount of pleading and begging will stop her. Not even the wisdom and resourcefulness of Uncle Zippy can change her mother's mind. Back in the city, Janetta Mae has a new boyfriend, Charlie Cole, who's an unlucky gambler. Since they're so poor, Sandy thinks she will have to hustle soda bottles to buy lunch and shoes for field trips. Remembering her grandma's words, she prays that a miracle will happen. And it does! But she can't always rely on miracles. Sometimes she must use the light of the firefly . Like when her fourth grade teacher tries to lock her inside 'the Closet'. And when the biggest, strongest bully in the entire school, Gorilla Girl comes after her, she know she can't back away. After Sandy devises a plan to get rid of the bully once and for all, it falls through. Gorilla Girl comes after her with a vengeance. However, Sandy learns an important lesson about life. She learns how to turn her enemy into an ally. The summer when she is eleven, Charlie Cole finally gets lucky at dice and wins a brand new car. They drive down to Texas to visit Grandma. That's when she sees Peggy Lomax again. Her evil personality was still intact as she talks Sandy into going on a joy ride at night in her brother's old, broken down car. Thinking she no longer needs her firefly, she discovers that it's only his light can save her from the dark highway from hell. Miraculously she makes it back safely. That's when her grandmother tells her an amazing secret about her mother. It's a revelation of her past that will give understanding and meaning to their future. When she sees her mother again, she hugs her for the first time and refuses to let go. She experiences a renewed hopefulness and expectation for what life will be like in the future.