I have a special weakness for sister books. I think because it is such a weird relationship, something that people who don't have sisters really don't understand. So when I found out that Maureen Johnson has a sister book out, I was pumped. Except that when The Key to the Golden Firebird arrived, I realized that not only was it a sister book, it's also a dead father book. Just a little too close to home, I thought. I read it anyways, and I'm glad I did, even if it did make me cry.

Brooks, May and Palmer are the Gold sisters, and its been a year since their father died of a heart attack. Things have been falling apart pretty steadily since then. Brooks has started drinking several times a week, and quit softball. May has desperately been trying to hold the family together, despite failing her driving test. And Palmer has been having panic attacks regularly. Everything comes to head the night that Brooks drunkenly decides to drive to the store in their dad's 1967 Firebird, which has sat untouched, in the garage since dad's heart attack in the driver's seat.

Although May is the sister who narrates most of the book, Brooks and Palmer are hardly left out. The love, the exasperation, the pettiness of families, it's all there.

Johnson is officially one of my new favourite writers. Also, I feel I should note that her website is totally amazing.

The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson
ISBN 0060541407
297 pages