Down the Strings — Nancy Means Wright

Drusie Valentini doesn't fit in with her arty family: her extravagant puppeteer father, his gypsy-like assistant Fey, who moved in when her mother left -- or her pesky younger brother Punch. A party that a boyfriend talked her into ends in disaster, and getting her sent to a strict boarding school. In a year when it seems that everyone is pulling her strings, Drusie is forced to come to terms with her life. Young adult fiction by Nancy Means Wright; originally published by Dutton