It pubbed in 1986, and I'm pretty sure I read it some time shortly after that. And unlike my obsession with Laura Ingalls Wilder, I didn't reread it annually, but it certainly stuck with me. It's about a girl whose flaky mom left a few years earlier, and she's been living on her own ever since, convincing everyone in the town that her mom is still around. Check it out on Good Reads.
This is the edition I have, same cover and all. Like so many 80s YA books, the cover makes it feel way more lighthearted than it really is.
And so, kumquatmay was born, on various social medias. Hell, it's the username I used on the online dating site where I met my eventual husband, JBB! And now it's my site-site.
So thanks, Cynthia D. Grant for giving me a book that would stick in my head for decades, and lending me a turn of phrase for even longer.