Days of Little Texas

Starred review from July 6, 2009
Ronald Earl, at the center of this multidimensional coming-of-age/ghost story, earned the moniker “Little Texas” at age 10, after performing a spontaneous healing while touring with his great-aunt's tent-revival ministry. But at 16, burgeoning sexual feelings and the apparition of a girl named Lucy, who died when he failed to heal her, cause Ronald to question his integrity as a spiritual leader. When Ronald loses his composure on stage, his great-aunt and his two evangelical companions take him to a former slave plantation to deliver what is hoped to be his greatest sermon and to drive out a malicious force there. However, Ronald's understanding of the spiritual realm becomes even murkier as his relationship with Lucy develops. A chilling yet tender presence, Lucy challenges Ronald's beliefs with provocative insights: people who do “evil things” are “Already in hell. Nothing can be worse... than to live the life they are already living,” she explains. At a dramatic final crossroads, Ronald discovers a kind of personal solace, but Nelson (Breathe My Name
) offers no easy revelations, instead suggesting that human nature may be as unknowable as the supernatural. Ages 12–up.

October 1, 2009
Gr 7-10-Ronald Earl, aka Little Texas, almost 16, has been on the road with his Aunt Wanda Joy, elderly Sugar Tom, and Certain Certain for nigh on six years, preaching the gospel and performing healings in a long succession of small Southern towns. Lately he feels a fraud, bedeviled by recurring dreams of being with a beautiful blond girl, naked. Sincere in his faith, he's nevertheless beginning to doubt his work, his worthiness. Exhausted after a night's work, he performs one last healing on a girl, Lucy, that feels different. As the days pass, he can't stop thinking about her as she melds with the girl of his dreams. When a large, boisterous crowd in Mississippi cows him, he leaves the stage, unable to preach. Wanda Joy hatches a plan to get him back on track that will test his faith and may, if he's able, defeat the evil that ruined her grandfather on the same site, years before. Are the women in Ronald's life working for good, or ill? A substantial subtext about twisted souls ensnared by slavery leads to increasingly scary and disturbing events, culminating in a showdown with evil reminiscent of M. T. Anderson's climactic battle in "Thirsty" (Candlewick, 1997). Chapters are brief, the pace is rapid, and the tension is high as Ronald wrestles with demons both temporal and spiritual to find his place in the world. An affecting and sharply written story."Joel Shoemaker, South East Junior High School, Iowa City, IA"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2009
Grades 8-10 He started out as a boy preacher with the name Little Texas. Now hes almost 16; the names the same, hisability to harness the Holy Spirit is strong, but his faith is about to undergo a challenge that would fell grown men. When Little Texas cant heal a pretty teen, she returns to him as aghost. Soon the ghost story hasbecome a romance, but this too is wrapped in something larger, a fight between good and evil, played out through the souls of slaves onan old plantation. Nelson does some verygood things here. The chapters are intense but short, andthe characters, at least the human ones, are crisply defined. The writing is particularly well crafted when it comes to matters of faith.Little Texas isno humbug, and the holy power he wields spills off the page. Theres a smart twist at the end, but with so much going on, the ambitious storygets out of control. Still, the underpinnings will get readers thinking.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)