Slow, slow-quick, quick

Set in 1952 in a small town where one can count on others for friendship and advice, where playground battles are settled without guns or knives. jimmy merritt moves to town in the summer before sixth grade, and becomes best friends with bouie and ml. innocence awakens as the boys face life's challenges. sometimes they manage affairs quite well. at other times, mistakes cause them to suffer. deedee rose becomes jimmy's first love, but an older boy enters the scene. ml, the show-off, almost loses his best friend because of his antics; bouie sometimes places self-interest above others. parents' influences are never far away, yet jimmy notes that they are, sometimes, "mostly out of it."