Hello

Its the early 1980s, and tomboy Frankie Hawthornes world is overturned when her beloved father--a Vietnam amputee who masks depression by playing comedian--shoots himself. Frankies neighborhood, in a down-at-the-heels industrial city near Boston, has had its own happier times. Left behind along with Frankie are her mother, Gerrie, a waitress at Friendlys, and a sweetly innocent younger brother, Teddy.Soon, Frankie decides not to talk, resisting the overly ebullient school psychologist, and comforting herself by drawing cartoons. Gerri, now chain-smoking and addicted to television--Doris Day! Rock Hudson!--wears an imaginary charm bracelet of disappointments. The once-adorable Teddy runs wild and is frequently summoned to the principals office.Finally, with some unlikely help, Frankie understands the possibility of growing beyond grief. Balancing perfectly between funny and sad, this poignant novel is about the tenacity of ghosts and the stubbornness of love.