Fixing Delilah

Delilah Hannaford’s life is falling apart. When a compromising picture is put up on her school’s website, none of her friends will talk to her anymore. The boys at school are harassing her because she’s developed a reputation for being easy. Her grades are falling, and she’s been caught shoplifting. To top it off, her grandmother has just died, and her mother has announced that they will be spending the entire summer in Vermont fixing up the family and revolves around the themes of secrets and lies. Delilah knows her mother is keeping something from her. First, there’s the identity of her father: a journalist and foreign correspondent who was killed pursuing a story abroad before she was even born. Why doesn’t her mother ever talk about him? Then there’s the family rift that occurred eight years ago at her grandfather’s funeral. No one has spoken to Delilah’s grandmother since that day. Why has it taken her grandmother’s death for the family to return to Vermont? Finally, there’s Delilah’s third aunt who died young. No one talks about her, either; in fact, Delilah’s executive mother seems to have very little time to talk to her at all, much less open up about the secrets buried in the family’s past. Vermont seems like it has the potential to change all this. Returning to the place where Delilah spent her childhood summers is reviving long-forgotten memories. It’s also restoring old relationships --- people who remember Delilah when she was younger and might be willing to talk about the secrets her own family is determined to forget. Then there’s Patrick, the neighbor boy and Delilah’s childhood best friend, who’s been hired to help restore the family home. Can Delilah find the answers she’s looking for without repeating the mistakes of her family’s past? Uncovering her aunt’s journal and sorting through all the junk her grandmother has squirreled away, Delilah starts to piece together the family puzzle and her place in it.