Ring Around Rose

Thirteen-year-old Rose Carlisle, a shy loner, is moving to a new town and a new school, a move that she is convinced will be awful.  While spending the summer with her grandmother at the old family mansion called Fineweather, Rose meets a girl named Ring, and they become fast friends.  The perfect summer is clouded by some unpleasant involvement with their nearest neighbor, Dooley Birdsong, and his “wolf-dog.” When Birdsong makes some accusations against Rose, she must use her intelligence and powers of deduction to try and prove her innocence.

Rose learns to be more proactive and self-reliant, but she believes it’s because Ring has told her what to do.  How will she survive after they say their final goodbyes?

At summer’s end, Rose’s grandmother tells of a girl she met at Fineweather years ago.  She sounds a lot like Ring.  Could they be the same girl?