When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, by Kimberly Willis Holt

This was recommended to me by a high school librarian I know. She says it takes place in a town like (or THE town) where she grew up in Texas. It's a sweet story about kindness and learning how to treat people right and forgive their idiosyncrasies and just loving them. Everyone in this book is perfectly imperfect: they make mistakes--some big ones--and they struggle to forgive themselves for those errors while missing their importance to one another.

It's one of those books that grows on you after you read it, and I hope it sticks with me for awhile.