The Orphan Who Refused to Starve

Stella grows up in the foster system with an absurdly high sense of self-worth. At St. Jude’s Home for Children, she refuses to accept the lessons adults teach about selfless sacrifice, insisting that hunger is hunger and that a child who is not full should say so. When the director limits her cornbread to a single slice, Stella sneaks into the staff room and calls 911, and the investigation that follows exposes a catering contractor cutting the cornmeal with cheap fillers.

Adopted twice during kindergarten, Stella first goes home with Eleanor, a single executive who has spent years alone on her balcony, and later with the Davises, a couple whose income is swallowed by mortgages and who are almost never home. Each household offers her comfort, but also its own quiet lesson about what love and family cost.

Stella keeps asking the questions no one wants to answer: why there is not enough pizza, why a cake must be divided evenly, and why love should come with conditions.