One Mississippi

When Daniel Musgrove's troubled family moves to Mississippi just before his junior year, he soon meets fellow outsider Tim Cousins. You only need one best friend, Daniel figures, to make it through high school alive. The two become inseparable, sharing a fascination with ridicule, 'The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, ' and Arnita Beecham, the most bewitching girl at Minor High. But then things go terribly wrong. They commit a small crime that grows larger and larger and threatens to engulf the whole town. Arnita, the first black prom queen in the history of the school, is injured and wakes up a different person, and Daniel, Tim, and their families are swept up in a shocking chain of events. Uproarious and moving, ONE MISSISSIPPI is 'a darkly entertaining ride of a novel from one of the New South's most amiable yet sharp-eyed writers.' (Elle)