Felicle Whitfield, nearly fourteen, writes of her brother, Arthur (two and a half years older), her parents -- and herself from the time she was eleven and Arthur left their Georgia home to go to school in Connecticut. His metamorphoses, slow and painful, her own desire to keep up with him, the mishaps her exaggerations (well, maybe lies?) incur, family storms -- and calms, are developed with some humor for this story of southern family life. But it's not another Mockingbird.