"Nora and Ben's younger sister Birdy loves to keep secrets ... One day Birdy watches her mother spit into a tube, ready to send it off to find out more about herself ... Birdy spits into a tube, too, when no one sees her. But when the test results come back, they are a surprise. Birdy is seemingly not related to Nora and Ben's parents. But if she is adopted, how could that have happened without the children knowing?"--

In the year before they become the orphans known as the Boxcar children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden live with their parents at Fair Meadow Farm, where, although times are hard, they take in a family who has been stranded in their car during a blizzard

From the celebrated author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan, comes another humorous and poignant early middle grade novel. My Life Begins! explores how life begins for Jacob when his triplet sisters are born, and how siblings get to know each other as time, and love, evolve.

Jacob is nine years old when his life changes.

He wants a litter of puppies. But instead his parents have a different surprise. Jacob

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