The Window

She is the beloved, indomitable fifteen-year-old in Michael Dorris's best-selling novel for adults, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water.

She returns, a year older but much wiser, in this year's critically acclaimed companion book, Cloud Chamber.

Now, in his first novel for young readers with a contemporary setting, Michael Dorris introduces Rayona Taylor as an eleven-year-old, and imagines the events and relationships that shaped this unforgettable young woman.

When her mom's occasional "hard nights" away from home become more frequent, Rayona's father decides she needs a place to stay - although not with him.

A couple of under-the-table foster-care placements later, he has no choice but to take her to stay with his mother, aunt, and grandmother in Kentucky, relatives Rayona has never met.

The surprises that await Rayona there lead her to comment to herself, "I'll never again be able to look out a small window and see my whole world from it...."