Raised to keep her head down and not ask questions, when twelve-year-old Agnes befriends her older anthropologist neighbor, she begins to think--and write--about things from new perspectives.

Southern states expert "Julia Reed ... chronicles her adventures through the highs and the lows of Southern life: the Delta hot tamale festival, a masked ball, a rollicking party in a boat on a sand bar, scary Christian billboards, and the southern affection for the lowly possum. She writes about the southern penchant for making their own fun in every venue from a high-toned New Orleans dinner party to cocktail crawls on the streets of the French...