When Rachel Harris's mother runs off to Spain with the super of their New York City apartment building, Rachel's life takes a bizarre turn. Her eccentric father becomes obsessed with George Vasquez, the man who stole his wife: He wears George's clothes, he shaves with his razor, and, to top it off, he moves George's family into their apartment. The poignant and often funny journey Rachel and her father take to Madrid to hunt down her mother further cements her desire to shake her more than unusual family situation and find a new identity. And who has a more perfect life than Olivio and Edwin Butler? So gorgeous and popular, they don't really have friends, just hangers-on. And though Rachel doesn't remember ever having spoken a word to them, her resolve becomes clear. She must find a way into the Butlers' home and into their family. In this marvelously compassionate first novel, Penny Jackson deftly depicts a young girl's search for family - and her discovery that family is a state of mind.

Penny Jackson lives in New York City and has always written about teenagers who live in New York City! Her novel, Becoming the Butlers, won best novel of the year for young adults by The New York Public Library. Her new award-winning short story collection, L.A. Child, is about men, women and teenagers from London to Boston to Hiroshima to India who grapple with the unpredictability of their lives. These short stories have been published in The Pushcart Prize Anthology, The Edinburgh Review, StoryQuarterly, The Ontario Review, and other magazines. One of Penny's favorite quotes is from Jay Gatsby, who tells Nick, "Can't repeat the past? Why, of course you can." All her writing about teenagers today is also about writing about herself as a teenager decades ago. Although there are Facebook and Twitter and who knows what else will appear next on the internet, teenagers now and in the future will always have the same fears, hopes, failures and dreams.