Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts

Lutie McFee's history has taught her to avoid attachments...to people, to places, and to almost everything. With her mother long dead and her father long gone to find his fortune in Las Vegas, 15-year-old Lutie lives in the god-forsaken town of Spearfish, South Dakota with her twelve-year-old brother, Fate, and Floy Satterfield, the 300-pound ex-girlfriend of her father. While Lutie shoplifts for kicks, Fate spends most of his time reading, watching weird TV shows and worrying about global warming and the endangerment of pandas. As if their life is not dismal enough, one day, while shopping in their local Wal-Mart, Floy keels over and the two motherless kids are suddenly faced with the choice of becoming wards of the state or hightailing it out of town in Floy's old Pontiac. Choosing the latter, they head off to Las Vegas in search of a father who has no known address, no phone number and, clearly, no interest in the kids he left behind.MADE IN THE U.S.A. is the alternately heartbreaking and life-affirming story of two gutsy children who must discover how cruel, unfair and frightening the world is before they come to a place they can finally call home.

my review~
Here is another author that I have never read before, but will again.
I couldn't stop reading once I stated becase I was "trapped" in Lutie & Fate's world. I cried, I laughed and I think I might have even threw the book (which I NEVER do, cause you know, it's a book and they should be respected). I was exhausted after living in Lutie's world for the 9 hours it took me to read this book.
This book was so detailed, you were running from the cops, you were living on the streets in Las Vegas, you were trying to scrape and /or con your way into being able to eat that day, right along with Lutie & Fate.
At first I found Lutie to be a very unlikable 15 year old girl, then I remembered, oh yeah, 15 year old girls are usually unlikable. But this book also showed that when they have to be, kids can & will be resilient. They will make their way through situations that will make any parent shudder.

Read it, you won't be disappointed.