A Friend At Midnight Caroline B Cooney

I loved Cooney's Face on the Milk Carton series as well as most of her other stand alone books.

So when I found A Friend At Midnight in the MVLS shipment at my library, that would be the books that run in cycles through the local library system, I figured I couldn't go wrong?

However me being me I wanted to know just what had happened to make Lily HATE her estranged father. So I read the ending which kind of spoiled bits of the story when I finally read it because having read ahead i felt eh it can't be that good I won't bother. So my mom read it first. And could not stop teling me how great she thought it was.

So a couple weekends ago I sat down and read it cover to cover. And loved it.
Lily's younger brother decides to live with their father after their parents divorce and her mom's remarriage and the birth of their half brother, whom of course shares a room with Michael, the younger brother.

A few weeks later as Mom and new hubby are taking older sister to college and not home Michael calls to tell Lily that Dad dumped him at the airport without any of his stuff, including his beloved stuffed bear, which you later find out he forced Michael to throw in the trash his first night with him and then to watch the bear be taken to the dump the next day.

What ensues is a 15 year old girl using credit card fraud and identity theft to rescue her little brother trapped in an airport and harassed by security.
Lily struggles over the next year to keep a promise made to Michael not to tell their mother and step father about what happened to him. She struggles to understand why her God never sends someone to help her.

I loved this book. It was sad, terrifying and enlightening by turns. You can't help but love Lily, mourn for Michael and kind of dislike their older sister. I recommend this book to any fan of young adult books!