This is the story of Raymie, and how she plans to get her father back (he ran away with a dental hygienist). While struggling to execute her plan in a hot central Florida summer in 1975, Raymie meets two new friends -- her only friends, it seems -- who expand her knowledge and courage. 
 My favorite thing about this quiet, unadorned book was Raymie's worldview. In the course of the story, it begins to expand from simple childhood magical thinking (stepping only on certain color tiles; imagining her soul as an object) into new dimensions. Adults may not always take care of you. Friends may be different from you. Children can be hungry and abused. Cats may really be gone. You CAN do brave things. Do you remember when your child-mind started to change in this way? Raymie captures these overwhelming, exhilarating feelings. 
 "And then the sun went behind a cloud and the lake turned back into a floor and Martha said, 'Let's just go talk to Isabelle," and it was all over. The feeling of almost understanding was gone, and Raymie didn't know any more than she had before." 
 "Oh, no," said Louisiana. "It's too terrible. She can't stand the pain. I can't stand the pain of her not standing the pain." 
 "It was the strangest thing, how happiness came out of nowhere and inflated your soul."