How High the Moon by Sandra Kring, 356 pp.

Precocious child narrators are my favorite. There’s just something so glorious about the wisdom of a story being revealed by a strong character of limited vocabulary, experience, and/or years, especially when they make me laugh. I think this is why I read a second novel by Sandra Kring. As in The Book of Bright Ideas, the voice of How High the Moon is that of a 10-ish year old girl in mid-century, small-town Wisconsin. "Teaspoon" lives with the ex-boyfriend of her mother, who has abandoned her for a career in Hollywood. Recognizing her many “afflictions,” Teaspoon participates in a Big Sister program that pairs her with the newly affianced daughter of one of the town’s wealthy families and owners of The Starlight Theater. But of course the margins of who needs or learns the most from whom shift as the story unfolds. Loved it.