Bambina offers a story of a struggling, confused adolescence and contrasting relationships with strangers.  The relationship that the protagonist, Sophie, maintains with her sister is interesting due to her own perspective, idolizing and looking up to her sister, and the immaturity of her older sister.  I thought the verb use in, "I watched as her red Sunfire chugged along."was extremely effective.  I immediately go to the sounds that my parents clunker chevy van used to make.  
The plot where the older sister leaves Sophie hanging on the corner and doesn't return to pick her up was useful and realistic.  I can definitely see an older sister becoming consumed with themselves and neglecting their responsibility to pick up their younger sibling on time.  I thought this lead into Sophie's interactions with Matteo and the apparent spikey haired pedophile nicely.  I especially enjoyed the dialect of the italian pizza shop owner, Matteo.  I thought his phrasing, "I worked here and now it is mine... I was young, we did not have much money." were good examples of neglecting contractions to achieve the proper voice of an italian immigrant.
The only things that I thought may have been unrealistic were the relationships between Sophie and her sister, and the family dynamic.  I feel like in most sibling relationships that I have seen or been a part of, a younger sibling that constantly gets bossed around by the older sibling doesn't react well.  I do not see Sophie going along with her ignorant sister so easily, and at times where Sophie can speak and think incredibly intellectually for a middle schooler, I would rather see her outsmart her older sister who seems to have a loose grasp on reality at best.  As far as the family goes, I don't see how a married couple that has remained intact can have such money problems.  With two incomes and the work ethic that Sophie describes her parents as having, I would think they could manage to stay afloat. In my opinion there needs to be more explanation for why they have these money problems (parents obsession with dressing nicely or driving nice cars?) or a change to a single parent.  These parents seemed too down to earth to be unaware that their children are eating out of dumpsters.