Shelter Island: A January Hoolihan and Crisscross Adventure

It's the early 1990s and orphaned January Hoolihan, whose punk rock father has overdosed, is working on her 8th grade "What I Did Over My Summer Break" English class assignment. She now attends a new school. On an Island. Three hours from New York City and the East Village tenement where she grew up. Her story starts with her last day of 7th grade in the city, after which she is to be dumped on a scary old man in the boondocks. This man knows nothing of her existence when she's hijacked to the Island where he lives. But best friend Crisscross, a street kid from the neighborhood obsessed with hounds and pirates, shadows January. And in her wake? A heap of trouble!These girls have secrets, one of which could drag the younger back to their old haunts and separate them forever.This nostalgic and often humorous Generation X look back to the popular music, hair styles, and movies of the time, making this novel equally relatable to adult readers, encompasses the turbulent, Tompkins Square Park homeless protests of the period. It touches on mature themes including child exploitation and neglect, AIDS, and the excesses of the punk scene's impact on their children. But it's also about new friendships forged on land and sea, an eccentric maritime family, and the power of unconditional love.