Mavis Street is a comic and nostalgic novel about Catholic school, childhood and family in the 1950s, following poor little Ray Bellini as he pines after the most beautiful girl in the sixth grade, determined to kiss her by Christmas.Ray and his friends realize that the sixth grade is different. For one thing, they now like girls. Ray's heartthrob is Theresa Mangiaverde, a blonde blue-eyed beauty who is unattainable.Ray perseveres. Along the way he and his pals encounter adventures, disasters and triumphs at their grammar school run by Dominican nuns-Our Lady of the Very Long Thorns in Providence, Rhode Island.Altar boys. Spelling. Math. Uniforms. Catechism. Latin. Gregorian Chant. Clapping erasers. Diagramming sentences. Sins. Grace. Sacraments. Processions. School plays. Milk Money. Nuns. Mother Superior. Ray is guided by his parents, his three brothers and his huge Italian family. While everyone, it seems, drives Buicks.Everything builds to a climax on Christmas Eve, when Ray confronts who he is and who he wants to be.