The Pinballs / Betsy Byars / 136 pages / Vintage Children's Literature Challenge

Thirteen year old Harvey is placed in the foster home because his father ran over him with his brand new TransAm, breaking both his legs, accidently.  Eight year old Thomas J was sent to the same foster home when the old Bensen twins broke their hips at 88.  Thomas J had been abandoned on their doorstep when he was 2.  No one knew who he was or where he came from.  Carly had to go to the foster home because she couldn't get along with her stepfather.  They are like pinballs.  Somone had pulled a lever and they had ended up here together.  Another flip of the lever could send them scattering in all directions.  The three pull together as a real family and spunky, would-be-nurse, Carly realizes that "as  long as we're together we're not pinballs."  The Pinballs is an ALA Notable Children's book and won the Georgia sate reader award.  Heartwarming, humorous, and hunger-for-fried-chicken-inspiring, this one is too goo to miss.