Becoming the Butlers

Penny Jackson is a novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and award-winning playwright. Her writing awards include The Pushcart Prize for best short story published in a literary magazine, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and best young adult book for Becoming the Butlers from The New York Public Library. She is also the author of L.A. Child, published by Untreed Reads, a collection of prize-winning short stories.

When Rachel Harris's mother runs off to Spain with the super of their New York City apartment building, Rachel's life takes a bizarre turn. Her eccentric father becomes obsessed with George Vasquez, the man who stole his wife: He wears George's clothes, he shaves with his razor, and, to top it off, he moves George's family into their apartment. The poignant and often funny journey Rachel and her father take to Madrid to hunt down her mother further cements her desire to shake her more than unusual family situation and find a new identity.And who has a more perfect life than Olivio and Edwin Butler? So gorgeous and popular, they don't really have friends, just hangers-on. And though Rachel doesn't remember ever having spoken a word to them, her resolve becomes clear. She must find a way into the Butlers' home and into their family.In this marvelously compassionate first novel, Penny Jackson deftly depicts a young girl's search for family - and her discovery that family is a state of mind.