Publisher's Synopsis
The day after Ginger starts high school her dad returns into her life. Well, not exactly into her life, but he does turn up on the television with a string of reporters behind him and the words 'swindler' and 'extradition' blasting out from the television screen. For maths-genius Ginger, her father's unexpected and unwanted return to the country brings her the first opportunity she has to try and figure out where she belongs and why she doesn't fit in with her dance-mad family. However, her mother is not keen on a family reunion. She has transformed and rebuilt her life as a dance teacher and reality TV star dance instructor since Ginger's father fled from the law. She remarried an unassuming man and has never revealed any details of her past to anyone. When Ginger decides to see her father when he arrives in Melbourne at a protest rally her mother follows her and becomes caught in the glare of the television news, and one journalist takes it upon herself to probe into her past and reveal on national television the horrific details of a traumatised childhood. Not to be outdone, Ginger's older sister, Angel uses every opportunity to torment and bully Ginger. Angel was the love-child of a teenage romance between a stunning dance star who died in a car accident before she was born. Angel uses her father's god-like status against Ginger, but Angel knows that her father had more bad points than good, and an earlier failed attempt to meet with his family has left her bruised and hostile. Despite all her family's objections to a reunion, Ginger moves disingenuously towards discovering all she can about her father. Her early searches on internet sites leave her feeling dismayed, and it is not until her mother unwillingly reveals more information than she wanted that she slowly begins to discover that he was a loving and intense man who had unwisely worked for the wrong people. She also finds out that she has two loving grandparents who stumble unwittingly into her life after the TV broadcast and bring with them the first rays of hope and love she needs to begin a new life. All of this doesn't help Ginger at school. Up until now she has been a star pupil winning maths Olympiads and featuring in the local paper. Once high school begins she can't manage to complete her maths homework, runs away from school and has a fight with Angel in the playground. Meanwhile, the school is planning to host a fund-raising dance to kick off the school year and Angel is battling to be the star performer. Two teachers hit on a solution to the problem and bring Ginger in to dance with Angel. Only, they didn't count on Angel's friend uploading a horror video onto Youtube taken during dance rehearsal when Ginger's skirt falls off. The video goes viral and the media is delighted with another scandal from the notorious family. With the help of her fun friends, a sweet boy and her new-found grandparents, Ginger learns to go out on a limb and realises that her current family has more than enough love and caring to go around.
