Sylvia, the narrator, is a street-wise, wisecracking, black girl in New York City. On a hot summer's day, she and several of her friends wait by the mailbox for their new neighbor, Miss Moore. Miss Moore is not like the rest of the people in the neighborhood. In addition to being, as Sylvia says, "the only woman on the block with no first name" and "black as hell, 'cept for her feet, which were fish-white and spooky," Miss Moore is on a mission. She wants to educate the children about the difference between their world and the world that white people live in.

The children view Miss Moore as someone who interferes with their summer vacation plans, but their parents yield to this woman's plans because she has a college education and because she has voluntarily taken on the responsibility for educating the youngsters. Periodically...