By: Heather O’Neill/Quercus

Baby, 13, is on the verge between childhood comforts and adult temptations-young enough to play with dolls old enough to know more than she should about urban cruelties. Motherless, she lives with her father, Jules, who takes better care of his heroin habit. Unfazed, as most kids are Baby cherishes the crumbs of happiness that fall into her lap. But her blossoming beauty captures the attention of a charismatic local pimp-a volatile situation even the oblivious Jules cannot ignore. This is a subtly understated yet searingly effective story of a young life on the streets-and the strength wits and luck necessary for survival. Read this!

HOT Tip: Hilarious yet heartrending; shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, 2008.

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