Letting Go of Bobby James, Or, How I Found My Self of Steam by Sally Jo Walker by Valerie Hobbs Sally Jo “Jody” Walker is 16 years old, and the first member of her family to graduate from eighth grade. She’s from Texas, but in Florida on her honeymoon, when her new husband ups and slaps her. Shaken, she hides in the gas station restroom. He leaves without her and she decides she’s not going to go back to Texas and a history of abused wives. While this book really has the potential to be just another depressing teen issues book, and the issues are indeed there, and serious, the reader ends up taking a delightful journey with a wonderfully spunky heroine, who does end up finding her “self of steam”.