SOLVED. YA/ Middle Grade novel. Foster girl is molested. Read late 1990s/2001. [s]

[Lori]

I would have read this in the late '90s or possibly 2000-01. An orphaned girl (I think she was 12-14) is placed in foster care after her grandmother, whom she had been living with, is incapacitated by a stroke. I believe her foster father's name was Pop Beck and he is a very religious Christian. She is grateful and comforted at first but then he molests her and she runs away with her little foster sister. They hitchhike a ride and she sees a cross in the car and asks the driver if he believes in it. She says she knew another man who believed in it and he was a bad man.

There is another scene when she visits her grandmother and is shocked to find that she has gray hair and had been using rinse all along.

[Becca]

Are you still looking for this, Eileen? Might be worth browsing the Kids in Foster Care list.

[Rainbowheart]

Foster Child

[Lori]

That was it, thank you!

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, glad to help out!