One day, a group of girls attack her on her walk home from school. Jeannette enjoys school, but finds other students dislike her because she is smart. They rent an apartment in Blythe and, because it is a larger town than the ones in which they usually reside, the kids go to school. Finally, he corners her and stops the car, gets out, and drags her back in. Dad steers the car after her, chasing her down, despite the children's worried pleas. The fight escalates and Mom hops out of the car and runs into the desert. Mom insists that her children come out later than most Dad says she is crazy. On the drive over, Dad sips tequila and he and Mom argue about how long she gestates. Some time passes and Mom announces that she should have the baby soon, so the family picks up and moves to Blythe, California, in order to be near a hospital. Jeannette selects Venus, so she ends up with a planet instead. The year Jeannette is five, her father loses his job at the gypsum mine, so instead of store-bought presents, he takes each child out to the desert at night where they gaze up at the stars choose one as their own. Instead, each year, the family waits to have Christmas a week after December 25, scavenging Christmas decorations from trash and scoring deals on post-holiday sales.

Jeannette and her siblings grow up without the myth of Santa Claus, with both parents informing them that the myth is foolish to make up for the fact that they cannot afford to buy their children nice gifts.

Jeannette the glass castle