One mother, five kids, twenty-five houses. Paula DeMarini's fascinating childhood memoir, FIVE THIMBLES, is one of survival in east Tennessee between 1952 and 1970. It is the first-hand, true account of five siblings living with none of the things most other kids had: a bike, a real bed or a place to call home. Facing one eviction after another, Paula and her family lived at twenty-five locations in her first eighteen years. We learn how Paula's mother, despite an absentee husband, nurtures one child through serious illness and secures Paula's own well-being after she was abducted as a young teenager. Incredibly, FIVE THIMBLES shows us how happiness can grow, even without putting down roots.