Thirteen-year-old Mary Lou grows up considerably during the summer while learning about romance, homesickness, death, and her cousin's search for his biological father.

When her sister, star-athlete Jakarta, finally joins them, Dakar feels much safer and happier in Cottonwood, North Dakota, where she and their parents are living for a year, but she still longs for their home in Africa.

"Difficult child Maria Latif arrives in Long Island from Pakistan to live with the strange Clayborne family where she discovers an off-limits garden that becomes a place where she finally feels at home"-- Provided by publisher Growing up in Pakistan, Maria Latif has been bounced between reluctant relatives for as long as she can remember--first because of her parents' constant travel, and then because of their deaths. Maria has always been a difficult...