Belle Prater's Boy

There's a mystery at the heart of this lyrical novel for young adults: what really happened to Belle Prater, the aunt of 12-year-old Gypsy Arbutus Leemaster? When Gypsy's cousin, Belle's son Woodrow, comes to live in tiny Coal Station, Virginia, he sets off a chain of events that precipitates a solution to this enigma, as well as the mystery of Gypsy's own father's death seven years earlier. Ruth White's characters, particularly the cross-eyed, brilliant Woodrow, are sharply drawn, and the small-town life of rural Virginia is wonderfully described.