What I Call Life

Wolfson, Jill. 2005. What I Call Life.

Cal Lavender knows only one thing: the life she is living now...it is not her life. It all started when her mom had an episode at the local library. Now Cal finds herself living in a group home, sharing a bedroom with other foster kids--none of them ‘normal’--and learning to knit from the Knitting Lady. This environment isn’t home. These strange people aren’t her family. She doesn’t know what to think about anything...but day by day she begins to piece together her life and come to some important conclusions. She’ll have to unlearn some habits, but she might just figure out this thing called life.

I, Cal Lavender, was definitely not myself. A fuzz brain, crying and whiny the night before. Definitely not me. But after I brushed my teeth, checked the mirror, and adjusted My Face for Unbearably Unpleasant and Embarrassing Situations, I felt more myself. Or at least as close to myself as an eleven-year-old can be when she is being forced to live not her real life. (44)

It can happen that way, can’t it?? One day, things are one way. And the next day, the life you are living, what you call life, changes forever. (105)

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