In this Newbery Medal–winning novel, Debbie Pelbry wishes something would happen.

So do her friends in their small hometown of Seldem. And things do happen: they meet new people (people with possibilities), they learn to do new things (like play the guitar or drive a car), and they spend time with one another (at picnics and pig roasts, on roofs and in driveways).

Hector tries out three chords on his new guitar (mostly in a church basement), hoping to stumble across his own voice. Saturday nights find the neighborhood crew crowded into a parked truck cab, tuning in to offbeat radio songs.

Behind the wheel of a Chevy pickup, Debbie discovers she can steer an old car in an emergency. Between trips to the Tastee-Freez and bus rides to neighboring river towns, ordinary days shimmer with unexpected clues about who they might become.

In this lyrical, funny, and gentle novel, a group of teenagers begin to find themselves.

• Coming of Age: Debbie and Patty hide inside a blooming rhododendron bush with smuggled seam rippers, determined to remake their mothers’ outmoded clothes into proper bell-bottoms.
• Identity and Self-Discovery: A battered gold nameplate necklace takes an accidental tour of the town, passing from pockets to road tar before returning in the dark.
• Sibling Dynamics: Hector relies on his older sister Rowanne for late-night rides, frank advice about girls, and help tying an India-print bedspread for a luau.
• Also by This Author: Nuts to You, All Alone in the Universe and Pictures from Our Vacation.