When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town's corrupt mayor.
Joan Bauer is the critically acclaimed author of numerous young adult novels, including Rules of the Road (recipient of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize), Best Foot Forward and Peeled. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.