"JON, FLORA, AND THE ODD-EYED CAT"

Pevsner (The Night the Whole Class Slept Over, 1991, etc.) delivers a magical story about the friendship between a 14-year-old boy recovering from rheumatic fever and an 11-year-old girl hiding out from her father. Tom is still bedridden when he and his family move from Chicago to North Carolina. He hates his new room, shows no interest in the rest of the house or neighborhood, and misses his best friend Eddie. But when a cat with one blue eye and one amber eye and the cat's owner, Flora, appear at Tom's window, Tom embarks on a thrilling adventure. Flora cannot be seen during the day or she will be taken to live with her father in Cincinnati, so she meets Tom after dark in a meadow behind his house for their mystical games. During the day, Tom appears to be recuperating only slowly, but at night he participates in the preparations for a druid ritual celebrating the summer solstice. The celebrations end in disaster: Tom relapses and winds up in the hospital, and Flora must flee the town. Tom recovers from his fever, but he will never get over his mysterious moonlit summer with Flora and her odd-eyed cat. Pure enchantment.