In Milwaukee, Isabelle Day had a house. And she had a father. This year, on Halloween, she has half of a house in Minneapolis, a mother at least as sad as she is, and a loss that\u2019s too hard to think-let alone talk-about. It\u2019s the Midwest in the early 1960s, and dads just don\u2019t die . . . like that. Hovering over Isabelle\u2019s new world are the duplex\u2019s too-attentive landladies, Miss Flora (\u201ca lovely dried flower\u201d) and her sister Miss Dora (\u201cgrim as roadkill\u201d), who dwell in a sea of memories and doilies; the gleefully demonic Sister Mary Mercy, who rules a school awash in cigarette smoke; and classmates steady Margaret and edgy Grace, who hold out some hope of friendship. As Isabelle\u2019s first tentative steps carry her through unfamiliar territory-classroom debacles and misadventures at home and beyond, time trapped in a storm-tossed cemetery and investigating an inhospitable hospital-she begins to discover that, when it comes to pain and loss, she might actually be in good company. In light of the elderly sisters\u2019 lives, Grace and Margaret\u2019s friendship, and her father\u2019s memory, she just might find the heart and humor to save herself. With characteristic sensitivity and wit, Jane St. Anthony reveals how a girl\u2019s life clouded with grief can also hold a world of promise.
