Sometimes growing up is like waking

from a deep sleep. Twelve-year-old Buhlaire

Sims doesn t know anything about her past

--something her mom, the singer Bluezy

Sims, and her aunt Digna don t talk about.

She s never thought about why there are no

photographs of herself as a child anywhere

in her home, or why personal items and

household knickknacks are kept under lock

and key.

Buh[aire accepts that her dad was called

Missing in Action, but she doesn t know who

told her that, or what it really means. Girls in

her class avoid being seen alone with her,

and she blames it on her odd-acting family

and the unusual way they live. Furthermore,

the boy who teases her and makes her life

miserable in school follows her everywhere

she goes.

Suddenly, for Buhlaire, growing up is like

waking from hibernation. She realizes that

she s been living like a sleepwalker. She~ let

people tell her anything, and she s believed

it--until one icy day in winter, all at once,

nothing makes any sense. Does her morn

think she takes things? Does Aunt Digna not

like her? Why won t anyone talk about her

dad?

In the snowy fields and above the frozen

riverbanks of her hometown, Plain City,

Buhlaire s world is about to come apart. And

nothing she thought was commonplace will

ever seem ordinary again.