It’s one mistake, but it costs him his life: Dulcie’s dad, a John Jacob Jerome High School janitor, mixes two incompatible chemicals and is found dead on the floor of the boy’s room at school. Dulcie’s also been a janitor for ages, and her grandfather is also a janitor. But Dulcie’s Mom, once the school janitor’s daughter, and then a janitor’s wife, is tired of the stigma. She’s moving on, from Connecticut to California, and she’s dragging Dulcie with her — away from her beloved grandfather, her father’s past, and from a job she knows she’s good at. When Mom tries to sell Dad’s old red truck for a mere #300, that’s it for Dulcie. She takes the truck, packs up her things — and goes home.
Defining Dulcie is a hard task. She’s anything but an ordinary girl, and her quirky journey home combined with the strange people she meets along the way, and the uniqueness of those she finds at her destination make this a really interesting book. Plain old work and time are the things that cure a heartache and they are ultimately what allows Dulcie to move on. A really interesting book.
