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She is the beloved, indomitable fifteen-year-old in Michael Dorris's bestselling novel for adults, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. She returns, a year older but much wiser, in this year's critically acclaimed companion book, Cloud Chamber. Now, in his first contemporary novel for young readers, Michael Dorris introduces part black, part Indian Rayona Taylor as an eleven-year-old, and imagines the events and relationships that shaped this unforgettable young woman. When her mom's occasional "hard nights" away from home become more frequent, her mostly absent father decides Rayona needs a place to stay -- although not with him. A couple of under-the -table foster care placements later, he has no choice but to take her to stay with his mother, aunt, and grandmother in Kentucky, relatives Rayona has never met. The surprises that await her there lead Rayona to comment to herself, "I'll never again be able to look out a small window and see my whole world from it...". With humor and poignancy, Michael Dorris has written a jewel of a novel about betrayal, forgiveness, and the unbreakable bonds of family.

"Rayona is beautifully realized, her emotional complexity combining with her self-awareness and generosity of heart to make her a three-dimensional character that reaches out from the page. Characterizations are succinct and finely tuned, each player given an individuality that has the ring of reality."

Janice M. Del Negro, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 1998

"This honest tale, with its wise narrator, will engross young readers. But their parents will wonder whether Rayona is Michael Dorris's indictment or his absolution. She is complex enough to make us ask, and resilient enough to provide relief, for a few blessed minutes, from the tragedy of Dorris's death."

Molly E. Rauch, New York Times Book Review, 02/15/1998

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