Fourteen-year-old Garnet tells readers on page one that before she was born, her dad left her mother, Betty Sue, for a carnival singer. Life hasn't been easy, and when Betty decides to join a friend in Florida, Garnet understands the appeal of starting over. What she doesn't understand, though, is why she gets stuck with her father's family folks she has never met while Betty Sue is off making a fresh start. At first, Garnet is as unhappy about the situation as some of her relatives seem to be. But Aunt June treats Garnet like the daughter she never had, and soon enough, Garnet begins to feel like a member of a real family, something she has never had. As in her previous books, White captures life in small-town America; here, it's Black Rock, Virginia, in the 1950s. Expanding one's emotional life, the work of teens, is beautifully captured here, and Garnet's hard-won success will reach across the decades to today's readers.