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Girl learns of life on Mother Road trip

Oklahoma author

Pauly Mahoney, 13, is the grownup in her family. She’s the one who has to worry about everything; certainly no one else will, not her fun-loving, irresponsible parents or her fragile, handicapped brother.

It is 1955 in Debrah Williamson’s novel, “Singing With the Top Down” (New American Library, $12.95 trade paperback). Pauly is named after actress Paulette Goddard, whom she in no way resembles; her parents look like the pictures of Jeffrey Hunter and June Allyson in Screenplay magazine. They live in Tulsa with Buddy, her younger brother who is crippled from polio.

Pauly, who records the household budget in a Big Chief tablet, does her best to keep the family solvent and safe. But her parents, true to form, die one night when they are thrown from a carnival roller coaster. Pauly is guilt-laden for not protecting them but is stunned when none of her parents’ relatives want to care for her and Buddy.

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