Everlasting Nora

by Marie Miranda Cruz
Lexile:  700
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Nora and her mother are completely alone ever since a fire destroyed their home and killed her father.  Her mother was swindled out of her father's pension by an aunt who had agreed to take them in, but now Nora and her mother are living in the cemetery with other families who have nowhere else to go.  Nora has had to drop out of school and help her mother with laundry jobs to earn enough money to feed themselves.  But one night her mother doesn't come home and Nora doesn't know what to do.  She knows that her mother's gambling habit has been increasingly out of control since her father's death and when Tiger comes to the cemetery looking for her mother, Nora fears the worst.  Where is her mother?