Road to Tater Hill

December 1, 2009
Gr 5-8-Annie, almost 10, and her pregnant mother are spending the summer of 1963 with Annie's grandparents on their North Carolina farm. Then the long-awaited baby is born prematurely and dies the following day. Annie is devastated and doesn't know how to deal with her grief. Her Air Force father is currently stationed in Germany, and her mother sinks into a deep depression and withdraws from the family. Avoiding the house, Annie often explores the nearby woods where she meets an elderly woman who becomes her friend and confidant. Miss Eliza is living in a shack that belongs to an individual who, according to local legend, was sent to prison years earlier for murdering her husband. Before long, Miss Eliza shares the story of her past with Annie, who continues their friendship despite the community's negative attitudes. Gradually, with the help of Miss Eliza and her supportive grandparents, Annie begins to accept her sister's death, but it takes Annie's near-death experience with a swarm of yellow jackets to pull her mother back to reality. The characters and setting are finely drawn and the author has an acute sense of how time seems to pass more slowly for children than adults. The love of family members for one another is heartwarming. A well-written and enjoyable novel."Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2009
Grades 5-8 After Annies baby sister dies at birth in 1963, Mama sinks into a deep depression. With Daddy on U.S. Air Force assignment overseas, Annie, 10, feels lost and lonely in her grandparents mountain community in North Carolina. Home is suffocating. Mama wont talk, and she barely moves. Annie does find friendship with a mysterious, solitary woman, an ex-convict who lives in a shack after serving 30 years in prison. Is she a murderer, as the townspeople say? Drawing on the authors childhood roots, the heart of this first novel is the sense of place, described in simple lyrical words: the soaring mountains and the valley rippling outward in waves and waves of fading blue, like one of Grandmas patchwork quilts. True to Annies viewpoint, the particulars tell a universal drama of childhood grief, complete in all its sadness, anger, loneliness, and healing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)