Three Pennies

Three Pennies tells the poignant story of Marin, a young girl navigating the foster care system. She clings to an I Ching and three pennies, using them as a guide in her desperate search for her birth mother, believing this reunion will make everything right. The narrative explores her emotional journey as she moves into a new foster home that offers a glimmer of stability, only to face unexpected news that shakes her world. This tender tale delves into themes of belonging, identity, resilience, and the complex emotions surrounding foster care and adoption, all set against the backdrop of San Francisco.

A girl in foster care tries to find her birth mother before she loses her forever in this “tender tale” (School Library Journal, starred review) about last chances and new opportunities. For a kid bouncing from foster home to foster home, The Book of Changes is the perfect companion. That’s why Marin carries three pennies and a pocket-sized I Ching with her everywhere she goes. Yet when everything in her life suddenly starts changing—like landing in a foster home that feels like somewhere she could stay, maybe forever—the pennies don’t have any answers for her. Marin is positive that all the wrongs in her life will be made right if only she can find her birth mother and convince her that they belong together. Marin is close, oh so close—until she gets some unwelcome news and her resolve, like the uneasy earth far beneath the city of San Francisco, is shaken.