When your Dad's an undertaker, your Mom's in heaven, and your Grandma's got a screw loose...it's good to have a friend who understands you. Even if he is a boy.
Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...
friendship
1970s
beehive
remarriage
neighbor
death
writing workshop
makeup artist
camper
cosmetologist
death in childbirth
tuba
funeral parlor
childhood crush
father daughter relationship