Judith Kristen Knihy

1961 --- when the world was a nicer place. ...or so it seemed. The plot follows the lives of five girls - Dee Ann, Mary Ellen, Myra, Kate and Julie through the last few weeks of their final year in grade school as the realization that their new teenage lives are about to take them their separate ways. Friendship, difficult family issues, heartbreaking confessions, boys, separation, young love...any of the rites of passage a soon-to-be teenager faces can be found here. These are five v-e-r-y different girls, yet the ties of friendship and love always seal the gaps. The question that remains is: Why can't love and friendship seal these same gaps when we grow up? ...And just what do we really lose when we lose our childhood?

"Olivia Twist" is a story of a young girl abandoned by both birth parents, left to be raised in the loving care of her paternal grandmother. Their relationship is a glorious happy, loving, kind, and caring until her "Mom" dies the day before the child''s 11th birthday. She is then forced to move in with her biological father and his already established "second family." Trials and tribulations abound and, three years later, the young girl decides to emancipate herself from her ugly homelife. It''s a story about the system - what it does and doesn''t do for our children - it''s a Cinderella story that a Disney film will never show you. It''s also about a child who learns to empower herself because she knows that there IS a better life out there, and, it''s a heartbreaker and an eye-opener to watch her continuing and tenacious search to find it.