Title: Praying at the Sweetwater Motel
Description: When Sarah Jane's alcoholic father hits her, her long-abused mother has finally had enough; she takes the 12-year-old and her 4-year-old sister and runs off. After a road trip filled with fear, hunger, and frustration, they find a haven at a motel in Dublin, Ohio, where the elderly owner, Mrs. Sweetwater, makes an offer of housing in exchange for chores. Before long, the girl is faced with the problem of starting a new school and trying to hide the fact that she lives in a motel. She also wishes that her parents would get back together-after all, her father can change, can't he?

Sarah Jane, her little sister, and her mother move away from her abusive father and live at the Sweetwater Motel in Ohio.
Subjects: Juvenile fiction, Family, Wife abuse, Abusive men, Families, Middle schools, Family problems, Family violence, Fiction, Hotels, motels, Household Moving, Schools, Psychological aspects, Children's fiction, Christian life, fiction