The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous

Merilee Monroe is a 13-year-old who keeps a very strict schedule (her Very Ordered Existence, or V.O.E.) and doesn't quite fit in with her peers. The reviews say that she has Asperger's, but this is never mentioned in the book. A poet moves to their small Texas town with his 8-year-old son Biswick who has fetal alcohol syndrome (this is actually mentioned near the end of the book; previously everyone refers to him as retarded.) Biswick latches on to Merilee and disrupts her V.O.E., which she eventually comes to accept. The town has a fabulous cast of characters: one woman wishes she were Audrey Hepburn, so she always dresses like Audrey from her movies; two sisters have been feuding so long that they have to schedule days to come into town so they don't overlap; Biswick's daddy is often found passed out drunk, once in the cemetery; and Merilee's family includes a crotchety grandma and a mysterious uncle. The book might be too slow-moving for some, but it is just a simple story about life and families and love and being different. I loved it.