Permanent Rose, Paperback/Hilary McKay

Feisty Rose takes center stage as the highly original Casson family faces a long, hot summer. As usual, things are a bit chaotic. Eldest daughter Caddy is engaged to darling Michael, and she's not altogether sure she likes it. Saffy and Sarah are on a mission to find Saffy's biological father (while cultivating hearts of stone). Indigo is cautiously beginning a friendship with a reformed bully, who desperately wants to feel like part of the Casson family. Rose, while dreadfully missing Tom (whom none of them have heard from), enters into a life of petty crime, shoplifting small items until her misadventures nearly bring disaster. Through it all, Rose's single-minded determination to find Tom remains as fierce as it is hopeless. Or is it?