Twelve-year-old Ellen learns the quiet strength of family when her mother’s deep depression prompts her to ask an estranged aunt for help.
Ellen’s mother has struggled with depression before, but not like this. With her father away fighting in World War II and her mother unable to care for them, Ellen’s only option is to reach out to her cold, distant aunt Pearl. Soon enough, city-dwelling Ellen and her mother are shepherded off to the countryside to Aunt Pearl’s home, a neat little cabin at the base of Snowden Mountain. Adjusting to life in a small town is no easy thing: the school has one room, one of her classmates smells of skunks, and members of the community seem to whisper about Ellen’s family. But even as she worries that depression is a family curse to which she’ll inevitably succumb, Ellen slowly begins to carve out a space for herself and her mother on Snowden Mountain in this thoughtful, heartfelt middle-grade novel from Jeri Watts.
Kizzy Ann Stamps is starting at a new school, the just-integrated public school, and she's worried. She's worried that the white students won't like her, and she's worried they'll stare at the scar that runs from the tip of her right eye to the corner of her smile - the scar a neighbor boy gave her, in a farming accident. But now this same boy won't stop following Kizzy and Shag, her beloved border collie, everywhere they go - even when they're practicing for an upcoming herding competition. And though Kizzy and Shag have been training hard, Kizzy and her coach aren't sure they'll even let her, a black girl, enter the competition. In this tender - and often humorous - debut novel, Kizzy Ann discovers that almost everyone has scars to bear and that with a dog at your side you can find the courage to face them head-on.
