Planet Jupiter by Jane Kurtz

Jupiter loves her family.  She's sad that her father has gone traveling but he sends her postcards all the time.  There's been a family friend that is getting too close to her Mom to suit her.  And now they are going to move to Portland, but her brother is not coming with them.  This is just too much change too fast.  The worst part?  Her mother comes home with a cousin she's never seen before.  Edom has been adopted by her mother's sister and is black.  As you can guess, Jupiter isn't excited about having a new cousin.  And now she's going to live with them while the sister gets cancer treatments.  Geez!

Provato Marketing sent me an ARC of this book to read for their blog tour (thank you).  It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

This is an interesting story all the way around.  The family travels around in an old bus and makes money busking at gathering.  They sing and dance and get enough donations to continue on in their lifestyle.  But when the father leaves and the bus breaks down. Jupiter has to learn how to stay in one place for a while.  She doesn't like it, she didn't grow up that way.

Now they're in a broken down old house and she has a girl that doesn't sleep at night sharing a room with her.  They are both determined to earn enough money to go their own ways.  Edom wants to go back to her new mother.  Jupiter wants to go find her Dad.  Busking doesn't work well in residential neighborhoods.  But then they find out they put out recycling bins.  Jupiter knows all about recycling and she teaches Edom.

They meet the neighbors next door, the local neighborhood groups, and find more ways to make money.  It's a fragile peace, though.  When everything comes to head, Jupiter finds out what family means and that it's not such a bad thing to have a home base.  Everybody in this story had a bit of growing up to do, including the mother.  Reading this will teach you a bit about ecology and eating wild plants, too.  You won't be bored.