Part One: Ann Summary

Anywhere but Here is the poignant, hilarious, touching story of the childhood of Ann August. As the story opens, Ann's mother has decided to leave her second husband and move from Bay City, Wisconsin to L.A. to make her 12-year-old daughter a star. They have packed everything they own into Adele's pristine, white Lincoln Continental.

In Chapter 1, Anywhere, Ann and her mother Adele are traveling from Bay City, Wisconsin to Los Angeles, California where Adele hopes Ann will become a child star. Along the way they stay in cheap Travel Lodge motels and eat in the attached coffee shops, so they can charge everything on a Mobile credit card stolen from Ann's step-father, Ted. They make a detour to visit Arizona because Adele has seen the beautiful homes of Scottsdale in magazines. Once there, Adele wants to stay...