Plot
Sally J. Freedman moves from New Jersey to Miami, Florida with her brother, Douglas, their mother, and grandmother at the end of World War II. This is because of Douglas' health, for he caught nephritis from staying in wet clothes in the cold. The novel first touches on racism when, on the train to Florida, Sally meets a black woman traveling with her young sons who are about Sally's age and infant daughter who Sally gets to hold. The next day, Sally goes back to visit them and discovers that laws requiring racial segregation in the 1940s in the Southern United States force them to move to another car on the train. Sally is infuriated and does not understand why her mother is not upset as well. Before she can be admitted to her new school, she must undergo a physical examination in which the school nurse discovers nits (head louse eggs) in her hair. The school nurse tries to calm her mother, who is insulted and taking the news personally, by saying, "Look Mrs. Freedman, don't take this personally. You've been traveling, she could have picked them up anywhere."
In her new school, Sally meets new friends, the first being Barbara, who teaches her all about there. Later, she meets a sixth grader named Andrea and a girl named Shelby, who's in a different class. She has a difficult first day at school, but after a while, she begins to make more friends. Then she meets Peter Hornstein, a so-called "Latin Lover", who seems to like her, but he ignores her when a new girl named Jackie arrives. It troubles her that he is going after a different girl, and she begins to like him back. She also meets Harriet Goodman, who takes an instant disliking of her simply because she's a "snowbird".
A central part in the story is when Sally meets a man named Mr. Zavodsky, who lives in her building. He offers some rock candy to her and Andrea. She refuses it even though Andrea accepts it, which makes her upset. She, who is Jewish, notices that Mr. Zavodsky looks similar to Adolf Hitler and comes to believe (because of her active imagination) that he is actually him in disguise and retiring in Miami.
Another important plotline is when Sally finds out that her father, who had just turned 42, is the same age as his two brothers were when they died. She, who is superstitious, is worried that he may die in his 42nd year, because of the well-known superstition "all bad things happen in threes".
Sally writes (but never mails) a lot of letters to Mr. Zavodsky, always saying she will get him someday. She spies on him, secretly listening to their phone conversations on a party line. She worries at one point he killed her friend, Shelby, and believes the rock candy he offers is actually poisoned. In the end, he dies of a heart attack.
In the one year Sally spends in Miami, she learns how babies are made, attends but loses a contest, drinks whiskey while attempting to make Creme de Cacao, kisses Peter at their teacher's wedding, and in the end, strengthens her relationship with her relatives.
At the very end, Sally and her family return to New Jersey.
Themes
This historical novel focuses on a young adolescent growing up in the post-World War II United States. Other themes include sibling rivalry, making friends, bigotry, and antisemitism.
Numerous references are made to technology and cultural events in post-World War II America such as party telephone lines and rotary phones, train travel instead of plane travel, and rationing.
Racial segregation is also noted in this book, both from the above-mentioned situation on the train with the black family, and another incident where Sally inadvertently drank from a "colored" drinking fountain in a drug store and a woman pulled her off it and freaked out over what she might "catch" from it.
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