1958: Bakersfield, California Having recently lost her father, twelve-year-old Lucy DeWilde has withdrawn to a new life with her mother at a trailer park. Naturally shy, she dreads the thought of going to a new school, and it isn’t long before her fears of being an outsider are realized. But then, Maggie Mae comes into her life with a friendship that changes everything. It’s off limits for the girls to play the boys’ marbles game, but that doesn’t stop Lucy from wanting to compete. She teaches herself how to play, but she needs help to gain the skill to challenge Johnny Henry, the school’s top player. When she teams up with Mr. Nico, the “old grouch” at the trailer park, it is to teach her how to become competitive in the ancient marbles game of ringer. How far might her growing talent take her—beyond Johnny Henry to the mid-state championships, the state finals, even the nationals? In a year of trial for Lucy, a fearful girl full of self-doubt, and of renewal for Mr. Nico, a man who has lost everything dear to him, an unlikely and endearing friendship might just be the greatest prize of all. “Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.” John C. Maxwell