The Heart and Mind of Frances Pauley

Eleven-year-old Frances has taken to calling herself “Figgrotten.” A “natural observer” whose hero is anthropologist Margaret Mead, Figgrotten feels most herself when she’s all alone, perched high atop the rocks behind her house, conducting an experiment that requires feeding crows.

After a hurtful, hateful disagreement, Figgrotten vows to never again speak to her fashionable, popular…