What does a child do when life hurts? She dreams up a hero. A childhood trial of survival. Realism and fantasy beautifully intertwined. This fictional tale is a suspenseful human-interest account detailing the harsh reality endured by young Anna. It tenderly acquaints the reader with a lonely, young girl and shares her courage facing adversity. Many of the events were taken from the lives of real people. Annabelle Fancher lives with her mother and her often-absent, alcoholic father. When he's not on the road, his presence at home instills heightened anxiety in his wife and daughter-fear caused by years of drunken cruelty. Annabelle copes with her circumstances by escaping into storybooks where she dreams characters to life from popular fairytales. These waking fantasies cross over into her dreams where Anna manages to experience make-believe moments of happiness. But when the ghostly image of a dreamed character appears before her while she's wide awake, Annabelle begins a real struggle to separate reality from pretend and sanity from beautiful madness.