The House on Maple Street

Francine Maria Capellini was named after her grandmother, and carried with her many of the same personality traits and physical features. As a child, young Frannie would sit enthralled as the elder Francine, Gram to Frannie, regaled her with wild tales of adventure in places far, far away from the humdrum little village of Cittadina, New York.

But while Francine seemed content to dwell in the same little house, in the same little town where her family had lived for generations, Frannie could...