Though to Brenda Belle Blossom's mother he is just "that boy . . . tying those beer cans to the Christmas tree," sixteen-year-old Adam is really the son of a famous movie star who hobnobs with royalty while jetting all over the world. Smarty Brenda Belle Blossom, horrified by fuzz on her upper lip, cracks jokes to avoid the bummer of her teeny Vermont hamlet and ladylike mother. When Adam is expelled from his last boarding school, he washes up in Vermont to stay with his irascible, alcoholic grandfather, and meets Belle at the drug store. Soon they are going steady, calling each other "darling," and dedicated to helping other misfits achieve "Nothing Power"—until Brenda realizes there's more to the "ordinary" Adam than it seems.

M.E. Kerr is the winner of the 1993 Margaret Edwards Award for her lifetime achievement in writing books for young adults. She has been described by the New York Times Book Review as "one of the grand masters of young adult fiction." She lives in Long Island, New York.