Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd Grades 9+ 272 pages David Fickling Books October 2009 Hardcover     Holly Hogan is just 14 years old and living in Templeton House - a holding place for foster children. Holly has accepted that people looking for a child will always take a baby first so she doesn’t expect to be anywhere but Templeton House until she is 18. Her best friends, Grace and Trim, make life at the House acceptable, but neither of them is a very good influence on Holly. Already she has been in lockdown for several episodes of misbehavior, and she has tried to run away once before. When she was caught, she had to promise never to run away again in order to come back to the home. Holly remembers little about her life before the Home, except that Mam and Denny lived somewhere in Ireland. Her great dream is to get back to Ireland and find them. That dream will take her away from the only people who have ever offered her a real home, placing her in circumstances that will force her to face her memories about life in Ireland. Along the way, with the help of a “borrowed” blond wig, she will become Solace: a strong, brave, blonde bombshell who can face any adversity and come out better. Throughout her adventure, she is encouraged by her friends’ voices - those from the home, the Aldridges, Miko and her mother. The dialects presented here make reading a little difficult but also give the characters more realism. This is the last publication of the author, who died from breast cancer at the age of 47.     web reviews   Joyce I. Rice/2010 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)