I didn't want this delightful book to end. The characters were genuine and believable. Set in the 1970's in Florida, an 11 year-old girl named Violet is happily settled into life with her hard-working but loving mother and her two best friends, Eddie and Lottie. When Melissa, a new girl from the big city of Detroit moves to town, she sets her sights on Violet's best friends. Impressing Lottie with her make-up, stylish clothes, wealthy family and relative "worldliness" and flirting with Eddie, Violet feels threatened by Melissa and tries to drive her away. Melissa persists until things come to a head, only after lightning strikes Lottie's family home and threatens her treasured way of life. The story is innocent, at times exciting, and so true to the confusing reality of early adolescence.