SOLVED. Middle Grade chapter book. Set 1960s/1970s. Family with shiftless, sickly father & unhappy mom. 3 kids, Oldest daughter (14?) is narrator. Dad inherits land in Florida & they move to farm. Family befriended by two men. Spoiler below. [s]

[Nachelle]

Spoiler


The wife runs away with one of the men. His car is mentioned frequently. The man also flirts a lot with the daughter and calls her honey girl. The baby brother tells the daughter that he saw mom and the man kissing. The daughter tells him to show her how they were kissing and the baby brother gives her a big smooch. Middle brother says that he's mom go off with men before when he was home sick from school.

Other details:
They start building on the land but the dad has a heart attack. They move back to town but the daughter is secretly building a cabin on the land. She surprises her family with it at the end of the book. The second man who had befriended her family helps her build it.

Early on, the daughter makes the mom a cup of Postum. The mom complains and dumps it out. Mom is described as petite and pretty.

While moving to Florida, their trailer gets a flat tire in the pouring rain. The daughter jumps out to help the dad, who is leaning against the truck looking pale and clutching his heart. The girl tells the mom, who gets scared. The girl realises the mom is another child to be taken care of.

Care are prominent. The middle brother might work at a gas station.

I remember a lot but not the title! I read it in the mid-90s. It was shorter, and it came in a set with books like "You Better Come Home with Me" by John Lawson

[Nachelle]

Bump

[Ayshe]

Sweetly Sings the Donkey maybe?

[SamSpayedPI]

Ayshe wrote: "Sweetly Sings the Donkey maybe?"

The description does have a very Vera Cleaver-y ring to it; I was thinking it sounded a little like The Mimosa Tree (but that's Chicago, and the kids had no mother, just the blind father).

[Nachelle]

It is "Sweetly Sings the Donkey." Thank you so much!