Empty Places

March 1, 2016

Gr 4-8-This is another fine work of historical fiction by the author of Like a River: A Civil War Novel (Calkins Creek, 2015). Set in Kentucky during the Great Depression, this book is written from the viewpoint of 13-year-old Adabel. With their mother gone, Adabel and her siblings must deal with an alcoholic father who works in the coal mines. She struggles to remember her younger days with her mother and yearns to fill in the empty places in her memory. In this emotional read, Adabel searches to uncover her past and what happened to her mother, discovering some deep secrets along the way. Adabel worries about her brother Pick, who leaves the family after a physical altercation with their father. Adabel also has concerns about her older sister Raynelle's plans to marry. Dramatic moments, such as when Adabel's younger sister Blissie reaches into a fire to retrieve a treasured doll, will have readers on the edge of their seats. Written in dialect appropriate to the time period and geographical region, the story is told through short chapters with believable dialogue and unforgettable characters. Closing sections with author notes accompanied by historical photos and a bibliography provide interesting background information. VERDICT Wiechman offers a moving look at life during the Depression, family relationships, and coal mining.-Lynn Vanca, Freelance Librarian, Akron, OH

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2016
Secrets dog a motherless girl and her family. Adabel's mother has been missing for seven years. No one in the tiny mining town of Smoke Ridge, Kentucky, knows a lick about her; most figure she ran off to get away from her no-account husband, who gets drunk on moonshine now that Prohibition is the law of the land. Adabel's sisters, Raynelle and Blissie, and her brother, Pick, all recall a time just after Mama left when they were parceled out to neighbors, but Adabel has no such memories--and almost none at all of her mother. Now she's 13, and the secrets are starting to worry her. Times are so tight that Raynelle flirts with the grocer's boy to get food for them to eat; after a fight with their father, Pick lights out for parts unknown. Then Blissie is badly hurt. Adabel has to find her brother--and, in doing so, unravels the family secrets. Wiechman makes the interesting choice to tell Adabel's story in Appalachian dialect, and it works surprisingly well: "Onliest reason [remarks] was said in whispers was to make sure us Cutlers knew we wasn't fit to be spoke of out loud." Less successful is the denouement--the secrets being hidden are too large to have been plausibly contained in such a small world for such a long time. Still, Adabel is a sympathetic character, and the novel offers an unsentimental, accurate glimpse into an era's past. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

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