Partial Flap Copy:
Everyone in Coal Station, Virginia, has a theory about what happened to Belle Prater, but twelve-year-old Gypsy wants the facts, and when her cousin Woodrow, Aunt Belle's son, moves next door, she has her chance. Woodrow isn't as forth-coming as Gypsy hopes, yet he becomes more than just a curiosity to her -- during their six-grade year she finds that they have enough in common to be best friends. Even so, Gypsy is puzzled by Woodrow's calm acceptance of his mother's disappearance, especially since she herself has never gotten over her father's death...

I finished this book a few days ago. It was highly recommended, and I did enjoy especially the vividly described characters and the wonderful examination between storytelling and "truth telling." The discussion about what Beauty is, its advantage and disadvantage, on various levels, is presented with insights and not didactic at all. The gentle humor in this bitter sweet story is most comforting.

Somehow the two traumatic experiences, Woodrow's mother's disappearance and Gypsy's father's tragic death, did not evoke strong emotional reactions in me. Possibly because the tone is so comforting, and the two pre-teens are both so wise and capable of making sense of life's misfortunes that I don't have the urge to FEEL for them after the story is done.

The many little "stories" and jokes, in the traditon of oral culture, told by Woodrow and Gypsy are in themselves savory vignettes that make this book quite different from others.