The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Changeling was originally published in 1970 and republished in Dec. of 2012.  When my children were young, we read Snyder's The Egypt Game, which  remains one of my favorite juvenile books.

The Changeling won a Newbery Honor Book Award, the Christopher Medal, and was named an outstanding book for young people by the Junior Library Guild.

This is a YA novel about growing up, friendship, imagination, and trust.  When seven-year-old Martha Abbot, a little overweight and shy, meets Ivy Carson, a friendship blossoms that saves both girls from their very different outcast states.

Ivy's family has a terrible reputation (drinking, vandalism, debt), and regardless of how different Ivy is--she is labeled a Carson.  Martha, who doesn't fit in with her accomplished family (or anywhere else) finds the perfect companion in Ivy to help her brave the world.

In self-defense, Ivy has decided that she is a changeling, and Martha has no real difficulty excepting this fact.  For the next eight years,  the Carson's move in and out of Martha's life, as they pack up and leave for a year or two (escaping whatever trouble they've gotten themselves into) and then return.

Although a hint of the darkness of Ivy's home life hangs in the air, the girls' friendship keeps both girls a bit removed from the fray of everyday life...until an act of vandalism leaves Ivy and Martha accused of the crime.

I loved this book.  Highly recommended.

Net Galley/Open Road Young Readers.

YA.  1970 and 2012.  Print version 226 pages.  ISBN-10: 0595321801