(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Starla Claudelle has already been on restriction twice since school let out.  If her Mamie finds her sneaking out of the house on the Fourth of July, the 9-year-old will surely be grounded for life.  Not willing to risk that fate, Starla makes good on the threat she's been taunting her grandmother with for years—she runs away.  She can't appeal to her father, who works on an oil rig in the Gulf.  He'd side with his mother anyway.  That leaves Starla's mom, who left six years ago to pursue a singing career in Nashville.  Surely, she's a rich, famous crooner by now, one who will graciously welcome home her long-lost daughter.