about the book
In the ten days since Grandma Beth’s stroke, Poppy has only seen her guardian twice. The children’s home she’s been staying at is uncomfortable to say the least and her roommate is just mean.
When Miss Austin tells Poppy that her grandma has been released from the hospital and moved to Huckleberry Home to be taken care of, Poppy is determined to see Grandma Beth. Since Miss A. is only willing to take her tomorrow (not today!), Poppy sneaks out of the children’s home.
She will find Huckleberry Home and see her grandmother.
While lost, she witnesses an armed robbery. The good news is that Poppy got a good look at the robber’s face; the bad news is that he got a good look at her, too.
Since the police are on a tight budget, Poppy enters an unusual witness protection program: she’s going to stay with Detective Brannigan’s mother. At her new “home,” Poppy makes a tentative friend while trying to save both her Grandma and a shelter dog.
Will Poppy ever be safe at home with Grandma Beth again? Or will she have to redefine what home is?
about the author
Dianna has been writing since she was nine years old. She loved watching a TV show and then rewriting the episode to include herself as a young character. If she had the time, she’d still do this because it was so fun!
Even though she did all this writing (the space underneath her bed was stuffed with notebooks), she didn’t admit her love of writing until after graduating from high school. With her passion out in the open, Dianna enrolled in the Institute of Children’s Literature, a correspondence school. She’s been writing short stories and articles for magazines even since.
In 2012, her dream of publishing a middle grade novel was fulfilled when A Smidgen of Sky went first to the printers, then the world.
Dianna likes trucks better than cars, fiction better the nonfiction, vanilla better than chocolate, and dogs better than cats. She’s an early bird, getting up before 6 a.m. and nodding off in her chair by 9:30 p.m.
She lives in the mountains of northern Idaho with her husband, daughter, and two dogs. She also has two grown step-children.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Goodreads
Author interview: Middle Grade Mafioso
Author interview: Dani Duckart
Book trailer: A Million Ways Home
Also by Dianna Dorisi-Winget:
A Smidgen of Sky. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2012.
Snow Leopards (Big Cats). Edge Books. 2012.
Pythons (Wild about Snakes). Edge Book. 2012.
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