"During a long, lazy 1940s Mississippi summer, 12-year-old Missy ponders in her journal events that are hard to understand. Her mother cuts off all her dear father’s shirt buttons to feed them to the birds, gives away her clothes, and becomes reclusive and suspicious. Suddenly, Missy’s two best friends have become "boy crazy," but they are still willing to accompany her on mischievous adventures. On one of them, Missy saves a child from drowning, and a wealthy doctor offers her a job teaching young children to swim in his new pool. She is shocked when only her white friend is allowed to accompany her. Her best friend, Almay, the daughter of the black housekeeper, is not welcome under any circumstances. Geneva has always been a mother figure to Missy and disapproves of her trying to question the social status quo. As Missy’s mother grows more mentally ill, the girl’s strict grandmother arrives to take control of the household and brings with her a whole new set of problems. Hermes’s child’s-eye view of a small southern town is on target. The enervating heat, the relief and cordiality offered by the local swimming hole, and the coming together of neighbors to view patriotic plays created by children all weave a nostalgic tableau. Most affecting is the sparring between worldly-wise Geneva and naive, questioning Missy. An evocative and satisfying coming-of-age story. "
—School Library Journal

"Missy tries to cope with the chaos around her by writing in her secret journal about the events of one sweltering wartime Mississippi summer. Her mother is forgetting things and maintaining a dangerously thin hold on reality. Geneva, the family’s maid, is the person Missy goes to for comfort and discipline and wisdom. But racial issues are threatening the relationships with both Geneva and her daughter Almay, who is Missy’s best friend. So far Missy is able to be true to the people she loves, but given the time and place in which she lives, that may not always be possible.... [Hermes] has created a delightful, multifaceted main character, who is at once innocent, strong-willed, compassionate, insightful, and curious. A loving glimpse of a young girl’s struggle to understand her world."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Recommended."
—Library Media Connection