My Louisiana Sky

The summer Tiger Ann finishes sixth grade in Saiter, Louisiana, is a season of awakening emotions. Tiger has always known that her parents are retarded, or "slow" as she likes to call them, but it has never mattered the way it does this summer. Suddenly adolescent discomfort makes her suspect that she has outdistanced her parents developmentally. Judith Ivey's thick Southern drawl imbues Tiger's first-person narration with such authenticity that the listener can feel the steamy Louisiana summer. Mama's voice, chirpy or childishly whining, is innocent or manipulative by turns. Aunt Dorie Kay's sophisticated voice is as smooth as her Baton Rouge lifestyle. And Daddy's slow and careful speech patterns emphasize his limits, as well as his emotional strength. Ivey brings great sensitivity to this powerful text. T.B. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

November 1, 1999
In this poignant adaptation of Holt's debut novel, actress Ivey's natural Southern twang goes down as smooth as "Momma's extra-sweet lemondade." Twelve-year-old Tiger Ann Parker finds herself going through some momentous changes in the summer following sixth grade. Though she fiercely loves and defends her parents--both of whom are mentally disabled, or "slow," as Tiger prefers--Tiger harbors guilt about sometimes feeling embarrassed by Momma and Daddy. She's also torn between playing baseball with her best pal, Jesse Wade, and sitting on the sidelines with the girls in pretty dresses. Luckily, she has her loving, pragmatic Granny at home to help her sort through the confusion. But when Granny suddenly dies from a snake bite, Tiger's world turns upside down. In the weeks following Granny's death, Tiger discovers how truly special her parents are and that she could never leave them or their tiny rural hometown of Saitter, La. Set in the 1950s, Holt's story evokes an era on the cusp of technological and social change, when life was mostly simple, though larger problems like racial inequality loomed. Ivey portrays Tiger with the perfect mix of innocence and a sense of blossoming wisdom. Ivey's other characterizations call on a range of colorful, though never overly affected, Southern cadences and inflections. Ages 9-up.