Just Juice Discussion Guide - Grades: 3–5 About this book Nine-
year-old Juice Faulstich, the middle child of five sisters,
plays a pivotal role in her family. She takes care of her
younger sisters, watches over her pregnant, diabetic mother, and
helps her depressed father in his metal workshop. Though plucky
and resourceful at home, Juice has had a hard time at school:
She's been kept back in third grade because she can't read.
Feeling that she'll never catch up and that she's really needed
at home, she is often truant. Money is tight for the Faulstich
family. Juice's dad has been laid off from his job in the mines
and most family meals consist of jelly sandwiches. Worse yet,
her dad, secretly illiterate, has just received a letter warning
him that they will lose their house if he can't raise the money
for back taxes. Family love triumphs over these difficulties.
Juice's sisters figure out a way to teach Juice her letters, and
her mom comes up with a way to save their house. In the
climactic scene, Juice is t