Friday Memes: Where You'll Find Me by Natasha Friend

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

Where You'll Find Me by Natasha Friend. 262 p. Farrar Straus & Giroux, March, 2016. 9780374302306.

Publisher synopsis: The first month of school, thirteen-year-old Anna Collette finds herself. . . .

Dumped by her best friend, Dani, who suddenly wants to spend eighth grade “hanging out with different people.”
Deserted by her mom, who’s in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt.
Trapped in a house with her dad, a new baby sister, and a stepmother young enough to wear her Delta Delta Delta sweatshirt with pride.
Stuck at a lunch table with Shawna the Eyebrow Plucker and Sarabeth the Irish Stepper because she has no one else to sit with.

But what if all isn’t lost? What if Anna’s mom didn’t exactly mean to leave her? What if Anna’s stepmother is cooler than she thought? What if the misfit lunch table isn’t such a bad fit after all?

With help from some unlikely sources, including a crazy girl-band talent show act, Anna just may find herself on the road to okay.

First Line: I used to think your friends were your friends no matter what, but that's not how it works.

Page 56: She bought paint. She took all the art off the walls. She moved the furniture into he middle of each room. I was excited because my room was going to be green, harmony and stability, and because I would get to use the paint roller. My father was not excited. He thought the whole thing was a GD shit storm. He said my mother would never finish and he would have to clean up the GD mess.
      I sigh into the phone.

Cover love here! Plus the back sports an impressive blurb by Judy Blume; but even without the great first impression, I adore Anna's voice.