A review by amdame1
Pearl by Jo Knowles

3.0

Pearl, who is really known as Bean is best friends with Henry. They both have mothers with issues. Henry's mom has not left the house in years. Bean's mom is usually drunk and mad at her father, Gus. When Gus dies, life is in turmoil for all these people.

Some heavy issues are addressed here, but the characters are fairly young (11 or 12) and so there won't be as much appeal for middle school/high school readers.