Fourteen-year-old Emi-Lou Kaya feels like a nobody in her Hawaiian town. Abandoned by her mother at age three, Emi-Lou hasn’t a clue as to who her father might be, and on top of all this, she is overweight. Her only salvation is the strength of the hard-as-nails but loving grandmother who raised her, and the feisty spirit of her best friend Yvonne. It is Yvonne who renames the dynamic duo Von and Louie, and who puts Emi-Lou on a strict weight-loss regimen. But Emi-Lou starts to worry about losing her touchstone when Von begins spending a little too much time with Babes, an older girl from the softball team. Rumors abound that her soul sister is a “butchie,” and when Emi-Lou suspects it’s true, she becomes desperate to get Von back to “normal” and back to her role as best friend.
- ISBN: 9780786814664
- Author: Yamanaka, Lois-Ann
- Published: 2000, Hyperion Book CH
- Themes: bullying, Coming of age, Friendship, Identity, Japanese Americans, LGBTQI+, Racism, Weight
- Descriptors: Americas, Hawaii, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Oceania, Realistic Fiction, United States
- No. of pages: 240