A coming of age story set in 1960's Indianapolis. When Emmie's parents get divorced, her mother takes her and her two sisters and moves into a series of small apartments in Indianapolis. While her mother struggles with alcohol and depression, Emmie steps up and helps take care of her siblings. When she isn't watching her sisters she is walking around the neighborhood making friends. She befriends a gypsy girl, a Chinese immigrant, and a young Black boy. Soon they are the best of friends. If that had been the only story that would have been believable and interesting enough, but there were also witches, mean boys that get hit by cars and died after taunting them (really?!), a neighbor being murdered (which Emmie knows and does nothing about). It's a little over the top. Good storytelling - but this is VERY fictional and doesn't seem like it could ever be real. ( )