Light One Candle — Natalie King

Dark-haired Everly Marsden, newly graduated from college, arrived in Fairvale to meet the aunt she had never seen -- but for whom she was named -- and to embark on a teaching career. But a teaching career with a difference. For the older Everly, and experienced teacher, had decided to open her spacious Victorian house to students at the high school who were classified as “disadvantaged.”

Seven teen-agers were chosen for the experiment -- and Eve almost gave up in despair on the first day they showed up.

First to appear was Arnold Robinson, who had withdrawn from the world since the tragic accident that killed his entire family. Next was Ronnie, a wiry little redhead whose mischievously gleaming eyes meant trouble. Following Ronnie came Violet Moore -- fat, always giggling, and never quite clean -- who was to become Eve's shadow; and tiny Cara Wise, who seemed determined to live in her own private world. The next arrival was Lyla Lyn Lanson, who had difficulty in spelling, and even in reading the simplest lines. The last were Joel and Concepcion. Almeida, the most normal of the lot, but in the retarded class because of being migrant Mexicans.

The skeptical but attractive next-door neighbor, Ward Crenshaw, lends a helping hand in this penetrating story of what makes the have-nots wary of those who would help them -- and how love and understanding break down the barriers.