Ready-made Family

This book had a profound effect on me as a child and I have never forgotten how it made me feel. Would recommend for any young girl between 9 and 12.

Ready Made Family and Runaway Alice are the type of books you read as a child, and remember as an adult, I recently reread Ready Made Family and I enjoyed it just as much.Hedy and her brother and sister have been bounced around by their aunts, uncles, cousins and other family members until they no longer trust that anything good will ever happen to them, learning to be a family and for Hedy to just be a kid takes time.Read it if you can find it.

There are certain stories you read in childhood that stay with you forever; I don't know exactly why this story has stayed with me so, but certainly it has. Hedwig's uncertainty and her desperate need to find a place to feel loved and safe were very well portrayed. I can remember reading about her loneliness even now, a good twenty years later.

Hedwig Kowalski isn't sure she wants to be placed out. With her brother, Peter, and sister, Mary Rose, Hedwig had been passed from one relative to another. Things are better in the state home, and besides, nobody wants Peter. Hedwig's aunt had said that he was a natural born thief. He tells lies, and breaks things, and causes trouble. Hedy is afraid Peter will be sent to reform school. Then thier family will be split up.Hedy likes thier new home with the Kennedys. So does Mary Rose. But Peter, well, Peter is still Peter. Why does he have to be such a problem? Why can't he behave? And what will happen when money is found missing from Mrs. Kennedy's handbag?My mother read this book in grade school, and we still have her old paperback book. I don't know how many times I have read it, but it is a great story. If you can find it, I greatly recomend it.