Part 1 Summary

It is mid-August in Alabama. Frankie Addams, age 12, is not a member of anything. She has spent most of her summer in the kitchen with her 6-year-old cousin John Henry and the cook, Bernice, feeling hot, bored, and afraid.

Frankie has a number of fears. For one thing, Frankie is sincerely afraid that she is going to grow to be over 9 feet tall. This summer, she's grown 4 inches, and she won't be 13 until November. If she keeps growing until she's 18, Frankie thinks, she'll be a circus freak.

Until April of this year, Frankie had been like other people. She belonged to a club and was in the 7th grade. She worked at her father's jewelry shop on Saturday mornings and went to the show on Saturday afternoon. She used to sleep in bed with her father, but it wasn't because she was afraid...