Elizabeth Atkinson​'s The Sugar Mountain Snow Ball is a beautifully written middle grade story that rang so true to me (even though it was about girls) and rendered so vividly the sometimes crushing anxiety and desperate longing of that age, when you're trying to find your way through the perils of institutionalized schooling, understand that adults are not necessarily all-knowing, and - just to make things nearly impossible - find out just who you might be in your own heart at the same time! Very nice read! ( )