Vicki Grove has written a number of novels for young readers that revolve around life in the American Midwest, often in rural farming communities, but the conflicts her protagonists encounter strike a resonant note with adolescent readers everywhere. Grove’s teens struggle with sibling rivalry, peer pressure and, most often, economic hardship. As their stories progress, they realize that family, school, and the larger community have provided them with the morals to help them through their problems. Grove once commented, “I picture my reader as being a young person with an open heart, trying to find the way to live as a decent and compassionate human being in a complicated yet beautiful world.”