A sassy and sweet coming-of-age story full of laughter, tears, and everyday strangeness.

"My mother was a no-nonsense woman. If it wasn't in the Bible or on Jerry Springer, then it couldn't happen. Of course, there's a lot of freaky stuff in the Good Book, with ladders to heaven and angels with animal faces and such. And crazy, muckraking talk shows probably aren't the best yardstick for anything short of how depraved humans can be. But the point is that when she was abducted by aliens and impregnated with me, she had some trouble processing." — Lynette, age 9

So begins this heartwarming, speculative tale of an unusual child who finds a home—and love—with her feisty Great-great-aunt Magnolia Rose McClellan.

Set in rural North Carolina, this Southern fiction "novelette" is short enough for a lunch break—though you may want to have some tissues handy!