This is a really cute and touching story about an 11 year old named Madeline. Her family recently moved from Boston to Providence, and they are settling into their new home. Even though she is not Catholic, she has aspirations of becoming a saint. (Yes, this is the second book about a Rhode Island adolescent with hopes of becoming a saint that I have red recently).

As part of her dreams, she has started to believe that she is able to bring about miracles if she prays enough. The clearest evidence of this power is the fact that she saved her father when he was trapped in an avalanche out west. This was done with only prayer. The fault title is How I Saved My Father's Life (And Ruined Everything Else). Things go terribly when her father returns, and her parents end up divorced.

It does not take long for her father to find himself married to another woman, and they have another child as they settled into a new apartment in New York City. Now Madeline and her younger brother find themselves torn between their mother, who has an interesting career as a writer of a cooking column, and their father, who travels all over the world as an adventure writer.

At first, Madeline finds fault in everything her mother does since she blames her for everything that has changed over the recent year. Things really come to a head as both branches of the family end up spending the summer and Italy, giving Madeline a chance to spend quality time with each parent and come to terms with the new make-up of her split family.

Hood does a great job of capturing the scorn and need-to-judge that is often evident in girls Madeline's age. They are quick to judge and share their opinion even when it means being a little sassy and hurting those around them. Her sass is easily understandable considering the fact that Madeline is having a tough time dealing with her parents' divorce.

One of the aspects of this book that is most fun is the fact that Hood does a good job of capturing the setting by describing a number of places in Rhode Island. This is particularly true as she talks about Wright's Farm, a family-style chicken restaurant that is actually on the road that Ray grew up on, and St. Theresa's, our church.

All-in-all this is a fun read.