This is the third book starring Hallie Palmer.  She has been playing poker since she was seven, is a card shark and is now attending college when in the bigger game called life she is dealt a devastating hand.  Her father suffers a deadly heart attack and in the face of this her mother succumbs to a nervous breakdown.   

With her mother placed in Dalewood Rehabilitation Center for an indeterminate period of time, someone will need to take care of the eight younger siblings that range in age from 15 years old to 2 months.  Older brother Eric is an accounting major on a full scholarship and hence has some prospects of bringing in an income within a couple of years.  Therefore this sudden lifestyle change falls to Hallie. 

Now her days are filled with the worries of family finance, parenting her younger brothers and sisters, and keeping the family together under the threat of being reported to social services.  Of course, the endless cycle of feeding the brood, cleaning and trying to stay on top of the mountainous piles of laundry take up a bit of time, too.  Thank heavens for the help of friends and family who rally around though some are more helpful than others. 

This is an absolutely fabulous read that will have you laughing out loud as you encounter some of the most endearingly madcap people to make their way through a story.  Whether the character provides only somewhat more than a cameo or plays a larger role, each one is truly unique.  Particularly memorable are the salty sailor Great Uncle Lenny who manages to incorporate views from a seafaring life into everything, mentor and summer employer Bernard Stockton whose flamboyance and joie de vivre is rivaled only by his strong opinions regarding his mother, and Pastor Costello who dispenses help and pithy sayings with calm in the midst of the storm as he assists in restoring and keeping order in the Palmer household. 

The frantic pace of the large family and the Herculean efforts of our heroine to hold the situation together are mind boggling in view of her youth and lack of preparation.  The trials and tribulations extend to her romantic relationship with boyfriend Craig Larkin who has decided to quit college.  Hallie, on the other hand, can only yearn to return to the relatively carefree undergraduate life and the better chances of a job thereafter.  Ms Pedersen portrays all of these things with charm, poignancy, wit and unexpected insight even under the somber weight of family tragedy. 

Readers will certainly find THE BIG SHUFFLE to be a big winner.

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