Appalachian Fiction for Children and Young Adults

Compiled by Judy A. Teaford and Tina L. Hanlon

Note: If you have suggestions or annotated entries for this or other AppLit pages, please send them to Tina Hanlon. Some links within this bibliography go to related AppLit pages and some go to other web sites (most authors now have their own web sites). Summaries in quotation marks are from Worldcat/library catalog summaries or publisher descriptions, unless otherwise identified. Some Appalachian books for adults about childhood and adolescence are listed at Other Appalachian Literature for Adults about Childhood.

Additional AppLit Resource: 

Index of AppLit Pages by Genre: Fiction for Children and Young Adults

Fiction in picture books is listed in Realistic Appalachian Picture Books and Appalachian Folktales and Folk Songs in Picture Books.

Novels

A

B

Baker, Julie. Up Molasses Mountain. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2002. Set in Clay, West Virginia, the novel is written in two distinct voices, those of fifteen-year-old Elizabeth and Clarence, who suffers the continual jokes and laughter of his peers because he has a harelip. During the year of 1953, the circus comes to town, a strike divides father and son, Elizabeth learns about loss, and both she and Clarence share a brief period of peace and hope. Many real-life historical people are mentioned in the novel: Mrs. Roosevelt, John L. Lewis, Mother Jones. Folk hero John Henry is mentioned. Pieces of strike songs and hymns dot the storyline, emphasizing the Appalachian setting. Julie Baker, the author, grew up in West Virginia listening to stories about the mine wars.

Banks, Sara H. Remember My Name. Illus. Birgitta Saflund. Niwot, CO: Roberts Rinehart in cooperation with the Council for Indian Education, 1993. 120 pp. " Eleven-year-old Annie Rising Fawn Stuart is sent to live with her uncle, a wealthy Cherokee plantation owner in Georgia, where she befriends a young slave girl and is caught up in the tragic events surrounding the forced Indian removal in 1838" (Worldcat). Includes a map.

Beatty, Patricia.  Charley Skedaddle. New York:  Troll, 1989. The protagonist hides in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the Civil War.

Belton, Sandra. McKendree. New York: Greenwillow Books, 2000. "McKendree ain't a who. It's a place" (1). In fact, McKendree is a real place in West Virginia, near Mt. Hope, east of Charleston, the state capital. Tilara Haynes, the protagonist of the novel, is going there for the summer to visit her Aunt Cloelle. Memories flood Tilara's mind as she returns to her family's homeplace–the rhythm of the language, the beauty of the mountains. This summer Tilara and some of the young people of Warren Springs spend time at McKendree, a home for old people. The elderly residents tell stories of times past, stories that reveal pride and stories that reveal vanity, maybe even stereotyping–stories about the Harlem Renaissance and the Cotton Club. They become attached to the young people. And the young people, much to their surprise, become attached to them. It is a time of growth, a time to learn to love–self and others. But there's more going on in McKendree and in the minds of the young people, who learn a great deal about themselves and life by helping others. "March stood next to Tilara, his face a golden profile against the deep chocolate of her cheeks and hair. On Tilara's other side, Olivia's freckled, sugarcane face peeked from under a crown of reddish curls as she leaned close to Thumb, whose face and hair matched the color of shaded desert sand. Next to him, Georgia's sun-daisy face was framed by the yellow-brown ribbon curls that fell across her cheeks and shoulder. Completing the circle was Braxton, his ebony face and hair rising above the others" (169). Dr. Adolphus Courtland locked this picture inside himself whispering "lines from one of his favorite poems:  'The night is beautiful,/So the faces of my people. . . '" (169). It was a good summer, but it was also a hard summer, a summer for coming to terms with the truth and learning about self.

Borland, Kathryn and Helen Speicher. Good-by to Stony Crick. Illus. Deanne Hollinger. Weekly Reader Books. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975. 128 pp. Jeremy Whitehead's family drives from their mountain home to Chicago, since their house has burned down and a cousin convinced Pa to find work in the city. Jeremy has more trouble making friends with teachers or other kids than his four siblings do, except that he makes friends early on with a blind teacher and his seeing eye dog, who live in the same building. Reading library books in this teacher's room is an escape from Jeremy's noisy environment. Many details reveal the unexpected differences between their old home surrounded by nature, with a one-room schoolhouse and friendly neighbors, and the crowded, dirty environment of the city. In several episodes Whitehead boys are victimized by criminal tricks of other boys. Although Ma disapproves of buying on credit, Pa's purchase of things such as a TV, couch, and Christmas presents make a return to Kentucky less likely. One of Jeremy's difficulties at school is that his teacher, Mrs. McNutt, corrects his grammar throughout his oral report, so he can't make his descriptions exciting when he tries to tell the class about his adventure of getting shot at during hunting season. A very different, kind teacher who appears after Christmas encourages him without correcting him while he tells a story, and by the end he has more positive attitudes about making an effort to form friendships. The new teacher admires Ma's quilts and helps form a co-op in which immigrant women can make quilts to sell and find friends. Pa has trouble keeping a job and the story shows in the end that tedious assembly line work which pays well is unfulfilling for a man of many skills. Jeremy and his mother have the strongest desire to return home and try to encourage others in the family to save money, but Jeremy accepts the uncertainty of their future and resolves to make the best of his life in Chicago.

Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. Halfway to the Sky. New York: Random House/Yearling, 2002. Twelve-year-old Katahdhin leaves her Bristol, TN home alone to hike the Appalachian trail after her older brother dies and her parents divorce. She and her brother Springer were named after the end points of the trail, where their parents met. She and her mother end up on the trail together, hiking from Georgia to Virginia. Many details about specific places and the hardships and pleasures of thru-hiking are discussed. Each chapter begins with Katahdin's journal records of the place, weather, and miles hiked.

Brand, Irene B. The Hills Are Calling. Charleston, WV: Mountain State Press, 1990. The novel is set in West Virginia in the fictional town of Verndale in the 1930s.

Bryan, Jennifer, L. See Kendle, below.

Burch, Robert. Christmas with Ida Early. New York: Viking Press, 1983. "Ida Early, who keeps house for the Sutton family in rural Georgia during the Depression, becomes the unwitting target of the children's matchmaking schemes during the holiday season."

Burch, Robert. Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain. New York: Viking, 1980. 145 pp. Sold for ages 9-12. "Tough times in rural Georgia during the Depression take a lively turn when spirited Ida Early arrives to keep house for the Suttons." Review and study guide by Carol Hurst in Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site. See sequel above.

Burch, Robert. Queenie Peavy. Illus. Jerry Lazare. New York: Viking Press, 1966. "Tormented by taunts that her father is in prison, thirteen-year-old Queenie retaliates by causing a lot of trouble until she discovers something important about her father and herself." Set in rural Georgia.

Byars, Betsy. After the Goat Man. Illus. Ronald Himler. New York: Viking, 1974. During one eventful summer evening in a West Virginia city, two children try to help a new boy in the neighborhood, Figgy, and his stern grandfather, known as the Goat Man, who was forcibly removed from his mountain cabin for the building of Interstate 79. Figgy and his new friend Ada are motherless, while Harold's mother appears only as a presence in his consciousness and a voice in the background, constantly trying to keep him from overeating.  Byars gives sensitive depictions of the two boys' thought processes–the overweight boy with an active imagination and constant hunger pangs, and the insecure new boy, clutching his rabbit's foot, whose biggest fantasy is accumulating wealth in long Monopoly games with the other children. Bewildered when the grandfather disappears with his shotgun, Figgy and friends set out on a trek to the highway construction site that is interrupted by an accident. Harold learns how to feel true empathy when he faces the grandfather and the cabin, which transforms in Harold's imagination from a pile of trash that is about to be razed to a carefully built rural home once surrounded by trees.  Harold's haunting memories of having to play the third hippopotamus on Noah's ark in a Bible school play represent his fears of his own differences and the realization that the old Goat Man can not be forced to fit in to city life. 

Byars, Betsy. Goodbye, Chicken Little. New York: Scholastic, 1979. "A boy discovers that he doesn't have to feel personally responsible for his uncle's drowning."

Byars, Betsy. Midnight Fox. New York: Scholastic, 1968. Grades 5-6. "Tony dislikes spending the summer on his aunt's farm until he discovers a black fox in the forest and tracks her to her den."

Byars, Betsy. The Summer of the Swans. Illus. Ted CoConis. New York: Puffin Books, 1970. Sara Godfrey, 14, bored and insecure, lives with her Aunt Willie; a widowed father who comes home on occasional weekends from his job in Ohio; an older sister preoccupied with her boyfriend; their sleepy old dog; and a ten-year-old brother, Charlie, who suffered brain damage in early childhood and cannot talk. The close ties among all the family members except the father are renewed during the twenty-four hours depicted in the novel, when Charlie wanders out of the house during the night and tries to find the swans he and Sara had been watching in a nearby park.  As neighbors and townspeople gather to hunt for Charlie, Sara learns she had misjudged a boy from her school and they become friends.  Byars gives a sensitive portrayal of the perspective of the handicapped child and the sister who has watched over him so closely. Sara's family and neighborhood are like those in any American town, except that the beautiful West Virginia mountains and nearby strip mines are important parts of the setting during the search for Charlie. Winner of the Newbery Medal. 

Byars, Betsy Cromer. Trouble River. Illus. Rocco Negri. New York: Viking Press, 1969. "When he builds his raft, a twelve-year-old boy never dreams that it will serve as the sole means of escape for himself and his grandmother when hostile Indians threaten their prairie cabin."

C

Carbone, Elisa Lynn. Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of His Faithful Dog: Based on a True Story. Illus. E. B. Lewis. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. "A runaway slave makes a daring escape to freedom with the help of his faithful hunting dog, Zeus. Based on the true story of James Smith's journey from Virginia to Ohio in the mid-1800s." The author's web site gives illustrations and notes on the source.

Caudill, Rebecca. Barrie and Daughter. Illus.  Berkeley Williams. Eau Claire, WI: E. M. Hale, 1943.

Caudill, Rebecca. Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charley? Illus. Nancy Grossman. New York: Yearling Book, 1966. 94 pp. This chapter book with black and white full-page drawings tells of Charley's adventures in a summer preschool. His nine siblings tell him of wonders he will see at Raccoon Hollow School, such as sinks with running water, a library, and an art classroom where they fingerpaint, sculpt with clay, color, and build with blocks. Charlie never gets to carry the flag to the bus after school because his curiosity and high spirits get him into trouble, but the men and women teachers are kind. Finally Charlie's offer to help the librarian shelve new books, even though he can't read yet, earns him the honor of carrying the flag as the most helpful student that day. Charlie and the librarian discuss the importance of literacy, learning, and hard work, which will enable him to travel to cities and distant places he has heard about from his uncle. Uncle Hawk, who is laid off from the mines and can't find a job, is illiterate because he had no transportation or nearby school as a child, while Charley's father, who has been injured in the mines, was taught to read by his wife. Since Charley develops a strong interest in snakes and his home up a long mountain road has no books, the librarian gives him a book about snakes to start his own library.

Caudill, Rebecca. The Far-Off Land. Illus. Brinton Turkle. New York: Viking Press, 1964.

Caudill, Rebecca. Happy Little Family. Illus. Decie Merwin. Philadelphia: J.C. Winston Co, 1947. 116 pp. Rpt. Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem Books and San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004. "Five adventures in Bonny's busy four-year-old life with her three sisters and brothers in the days of copper-toed shoes."

Caudill, Rebecca. Schoolhouse in the Woods. Illus. Decie Merwin. Philadelphia, Winston Co., 1949. Rpt. Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem Books and San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004. 129 pp. "During her first year in a one-room school in the Kentucky hills, Bonnie has many exciting experiences, from getting her first book to playing an angel in a play.

Caudill, Rebecca. Tree of Freedom. Illus. Dorothy Bayley Morse. New York: Viking, 1949, "The two eldest children of a pioneer family are determined to carry their love of beauty and learning to their new home in the Kentucky Wilderness." "When the Venable family moves from Carolina to Kentucky in 1780, they meet with rival claims to their new land as well as harsh demands for their sons to be Revolutionary War recruits.

Caudill, Rebecca. Up and Down the River. Philadelphia: Winston, 1951. "Bonnie and Debbie try to 'get rich' over summer vacation by selling laundry bluing and pictures door to door in rural Kentucky at the beginning of the 20th century, but summer's end finds them with a yard full of pets and empty pockets."

For details on some Rebecca Caudill books, see article "The Contributions of Rebecca Caudill and Dorothy Hoobler to Appalachian Literature for Young Adults" and Teaching Guide.

Chaffin, Lillie D. John Henry McCoy. Illus. Emanuel Schongut. New York: Macmillan, 1971."Tired of constant moves, a ten-year-old boy tries to find a way to help his family settle permanently in Appalachia."

Clark, Billy C. The Champion of Sourwood Mountain. Illus. Harold Eldridge. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1966. "Growing up in the farm country of eastern Kentucky, fourteen-year-old Aram Tate's all-consuming passion is to own a hound dog. His efforts to achieve this dream involve him in a series of comical adventures which broaden his view of the world."

Clark, Billy C. Goodbye Kate. 1964. Ed. Jerry A. Herndon. Illus. Harold Eldridge. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994. 274 pp. "Follows the misadventures of a country boy from Kentucky and his mischievous mule."

Clark, Billy C. Mooneyed Hound. 1957. Illus. Jim Marsh. Ed. James M. Gifford, Patricia A. Hall, and Chuck D. Charles. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1995. 144 pp. Sequel to Trail of the Hunter's Horn. "Anxious to acquire a good coon dog, which is a badge of manhood in his Kentucky mountains, Jeb is dismayed when the pup he awaits is born with a stub tail and moon eye." (1958 ed. illustrated by Nedda Walker)

Clark, Billy C. Riverboy. Ed. Tracey Besmark. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1997. 160 pp.

Clark, Billy C. Song of the River. 1957. Illus. Ezra Jack Keats. Ed. James M. Gifford, Chuck D. Charles, and Eleanor Kersey.  Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994. 144 pp. Introduction by Gurney Norman. "Having grown old living in his shantyboat on the Big Sandy River in eastern Kentucky, John engages in a final battle with Scrapiron Jack, the huge catfish he has been trying to catch for years."

Clark, Billy C. The Trail of the Hunter's Horn. 1957. Illus. Jim Marsh. Eds. James M. Gifford, Patricia A. Hall, and Chuck D. Charles. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1995. 96 pp. (1957 ed. illustrated by Veronica Reed)

Clark, Billy C. Useless Dog. Illus. Jim Marsh. Eds. James M. Gifford, Chuck D. Charles, and Patricia A. Hall. New York: Putnam, 1996. Rpt. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1996. 144 pp.

Cleaver, Vera, and Bill. Trial Valley.  New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1977. Trial Valley continues the story that begins in Where The Lilies Bloom. The three Luther children (Mary Call, Romey, and Ima Dean) discover a lost boy near their house in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Cleaver, Vera, and Bill. Where the Lilies Bloom. New York: Harper Trophy, 1969. Very popular children’s novel about a family in western NC struggling to live off the land (sometime earlier in 20th century). The oldest daughter keeps the family together after the father’s death. The authors put notes in the back about the practice of “wildcrafting,” collecting plant products to sell for a living. Also made into a popular film. See more in Study Guide in AppLit.  

Cole, Norma. The Final Tide. New York: M. K. McElderry Books, 1990. "When the Tennessee Valley Authority builds a dam at Wolf Creek to bring electricity to Tollers Ridge, Kentucky, everyone in fourteen-year-old Geneva's family prepares to move to higher ground except for Granny who refuses to leave her home."

Cornelissen, Cornelia. Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears. New York:  Bantam, 1998. Nine-year-old Soft Rain loves hearing stories daily from her grandmother, until her family is separated during the forced removal of their people from North Carolina to Oklahoma, and the blind grandmother has to be left behind. The book contains background and a bibliography of fiction and nonfiction for all ages on Cherokee legends and history. See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature and Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Crist-Evans, Craig. Moon Over Tennessee: A Boy's Civil War Journal. Illus. Bonnie Christensen. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. 64 pp. Publisher's description: "In the spring of 1863, a thirteen-year-old boy leaves his home in northeastern Tennessee with his father, who has joined the Confederate army. The boy rides with him to care for the horses and help with camp duties. A moving personal narrative in the form of a journal, this powerful poem tells of one boy's journey into war - and the horrible climax at Gettysburg that would forever change his life. Illustrated with striking black-and-white woodcuts, Moon Over Tennessee is a vivid, lyrical, and intensely human document of the terrible personal cost of the Civil War." The boy's best friend at home is the son of a freed slave. (Excerpts including critically acclaimed illustrations available at Google Books on 9/16/09).

Crook, Beverly Courtney. Fair Annie of Old Mule Hollow. New York:  McGraw Hill, 1978. 175 pp. Worldcat summary: "When Fair Annie, a sheltered mountain girl, inadvertently strays into forbidden McFarr territory her life opens up to tragedy and to love." Annie is a smart eighth-grade girl who hopes to be a lawyer, although she is completely isolated from modern society on the WV-KY border in 1965. Roberta T. Herrin has written about this novel's "phony depictions of Appalachians and their speech" (in "'Shall We Teach 'Em or Learn 'Em?': Attitudes toward Language in Appalachian Children's Literature." Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association, vol. 3 (1991): p. 193). Herrin finds Annie's standard English speech and the father's praise of Annie's learning to be unrealistic, although it is interesting that the father expects his daughter's education to help her people deal with the "governmint."

Crum, Shutta. Spitting Image. New York: Clarion Books, 2003. 224 pp. "In the small town of Baylor, Kentucky, twelve-year-old Jessie K. Bovey and her friends confront some of life's questions during their summer vacation in the late 1960s," during Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty .

Cummings, John Michael. The Night I Freed John Brown. New York: Philomel Books, 2008. " In Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, twelve-year-old Josh uncovers family secrets involving his overly strict father, whose anger threatens to tear the family apart" (Worldcat).

Curry, Jane Louise. The Daybreakers. Illus. Charles Robinson. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970. "While exploring what they think is an underground passage [in WV], three children are transported back in time to an ancient Indian civilization."

Curry, Jane Louise. The Watchers. New York: Atheneum, 1975. "Rebellious and unhappy at being shipped off to live with strange kinfolk in the mountains of West Virginia, a young boy is drawn into an ancient conflict that moves back and forth in time. " Roberta Herrin noted in 1987 that this novel "combines fantasy with the contemporary theme of a coal company's claim on a West Virginia family's land. In both of Curry's books, Appalachian culture, dress, language, names, occupations are central to the fantasy " ("Appalachian Books for All Children." Now and Then,  vol. 4.1, 1987: p. 34)

D 

Dadey, Debbie. Cherokee Sister. New York: Delacorte Press, 2000. 119 pp. "Because she is mistaken for an Indian, twelve-year-old Allie, a white girl, is forced to travel the Trail of Tears along with her best friend, a young Cherokee" (Worldcat).

Davis, Adda Leah. Jason's Journey. Charleston, WV: Mountain State Press, 2008. 332 pp. Sequel to Lucinda's Mountain, the story of a young doctor in the southern WV coalfields at the time of the Korean War.

Davis, Adda Leah. Lucinda's Mountain. Charleston, WV: Mountain State Press, 2007. 315 pp. First of a trilogy set in the coalfields of WV in the mid-20th century.

Davis, Jenny. Good-bye And Keep Cold. New York: Orchard Books, 1987. This exceptional first novel is set in eastern Kentucky. When narrator Edda is eight years old, her father is killed in a strip-mining accident.  The novel is a coming-of-age story that also relays the struggles the Combs family faces as they try to rebuild and move forward with their lives.  

Depew, Lanette. A Bridge Spanning Time. Johnson City, TN:  Overmountain Press, 2003. 96 pp. Based on the history of a bridge in Elizabethton, TN. See Overmountain web site for summary and picture. Sold for ages 9-12.

Dowell, Frances O'Roark. Dovey Coe. New York: Aladdin, 2000. 181 pp. The narrator is a 12-year-old girl in rural Watauga County, NC in 1926, who is charged with killing the son of the richest family in town. On the first page she describes Parnell Caraway as "the meanest, vainest, greediest man who ever lived. Seventeen years old and rotten to the core." Dovey tells of her family's long history of living on their own land, her deaf brother and his dogs Huck and Tom, her parents' efforts to raise independent and loving children, her pretty older sister Caroline's desire for travel and education, Parnell's courtship of Caroline before Caroline is to leave for teachers college in Boone, and the murder trial. The economic and social inequalities of the community play a role in the plot, as well as discrimination against deaf children and traditions of folk medicine and music. A ghost makes a brief appearance toward the end. Dovey calls her school in Indian Creek "a poor excuse for an institution of learning," since with a series of teachers "straight out of teachers college who thought she was doing her Christian duty by coming up here and learning us hillbillies" (p. 19). Dovey's lawyer calls her at the end "a might big force to be reckoned with" (p. 180). During her trial, when she is threatened with becoming a flatlander in a detention home in Charlotte, Dovey observes "the mountains that framed our town like a circle of wise old men and women" and reminisces about running up the trail of Katie's Knob "searching for all the interesting things a mountain had to offer" (p. 156).

E

Eckert, Allan W. Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnees. Ashland, KY:  Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2003. Eckert writes, "In the year 1771, a white boy named Marmaduke Van Swearingen was captured by Shawnee Indians in what is now West Virginia. . . taken to Ohio where he was adopted into the tribe and given the name Blue Jacket, from the blue shirt he was wearing. . . and became the only white to be made war chief of the Shawnee Nation. . . The characters in this book were real people who lived the life and did the things herein recounted.  Much of the dialogue is taken from historical records" (Front Cover).  There has been great debate regarding the truth of Blue Jacket's heritage.  To read more about this, see the following sites:  Blue Jacket: Fact or Fiction and Indian Heritage: Shawnee and Cherokee.   

Ehrenberg, Pamela. Tillmon County Fire. CIP. Eerdmans. 2009. 175pp. Favorable review, recommending the novel for grades seven and up, in School Library Journal, 4/1/09: "This cleverly plotted and well-crafted story of abuse and vengeance is told in pieces from the varying perspectives of a half-dozen teens, and Ehrenberg uses intertwining chapters to explore their motives and desires.... The vividly drawn setting, almost a character in itself, embraces an important message all readers need to hear."

Ellington, Charlotte Jane. Beloved Mother: The Story of Nancy Ward. Johnson City, Tenn: Overmountain Press, 1994. 187 pp. "The story of Nancy Ward, an 18th Century Cherokee heroine, narrated by her daughter. In the Battle of Taliwa, Wild Rose, as she was known, seized the musket of her fallen husband and led the Cherokees to victory over the Creek. Later, she married a white trader" (Worldcat) and pursued peace in opposition to her warrior cousin, Dragging Canoe.

Ellington, Charlotte Jane. Dancing Leaf. Johnson City, Tenn: Overmountain Press, 2007. A novel in which "authentic Cherokee legends begin each chapter and are woven into the adventures of Dancing Leaf, a character based on the adopted daughter of Cherokee chieftainess Nancy Ward" (Worldcat). She pursues a journey of self-discovery while away from the man she loves, Blue Lake. Chapter titles (available with other excerpts in Google Book Search) indicate the legends retold in this book. They include one about how the possum got a bare tail, "The Uktena," "Why Turtle's Shell is Scarred," "The Legend of the Strawberries," "The Daughter of the Sun," and others.

Ernst, Kathleen. Midnight in Lonesome Hollow: A Kit Mystery. American Girl Mysteries. Illus. Jean-Paul Tibbles. Middleton, WI: Pleasant, 2007. 178 pp. "Kit is visiting Aunt Millie in Mountain Hollow, Kentucky, in 1934. When a professor arrives to study Kentucky mountain traditions, Kit is thrilled to help with her research—until it becomes clear that somebody doesn't want 'outsiders' nosing around. Kit decides to find out who's making trouble—even if it means venturing into Lonesome Hollow in the dark of night. ... An illustrated 'Looking Back' section provides historical context." Kit Kittredge is a sixth-grade journalist in Cincinnati during the Great Depression, in the American Girl series of dolls and books.

F

Fawcett, Katie P. To Come and Go Like Magic. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. "In the 1970s, twelve-year-old Chili Sue Mahoney longs to escape her tiny Kentucky home town and see the world, but she also learns to recognize beauty in the people and places around her."

Forman, James D. A Ballad for Hogskin Hill. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1979. 229 pp. Set in the mountains of Kentucky. A boy and his family try to stop the strip mining that threatens to take their home. Roberta Herrin has noted the "complex characterization" in this novel ("Appalachian Books for All Children." Now and Then,  vol. 4.1, 1987: p. 35).

G 

Gibbons, Faye. Mighty Close to Heaven. New York: Morrow, 1985. "When twelve-year-old Dave runs away from his grandparents' farm and makes his way through the Georgia mountains to rejoin his wandering father, he finds disappointment and a new appreciation for what he has left behind."

Gibbons, Faye. Some Glad Morning. New York: Morrow, 1982. "Following her mother's separation from her alcoholic father in 1947, city-bred Maude must learn how to get along with her mother's relatives when they move to the mountains of northern Georgia."

Green, Connie Jordan. Emmy. Illus. Bob Crofut. Margaret McElderry, 1992. "In the 1920s when her father is disabled in a coal mining accident, eleven-year-old Emmy and the others in her family do what they can to help, with her fourteen-year-old brother taking Pa's place in the mines."

Green, Michelle Y. Willie Pearl. Illus. Steve McCracken.  Temple Hills, MD: William Ruth, 1990. First of a "Historical fiction series for families based in a Depression-era Kentucky coal-mining town," based on Green's mother's background.

Green, Michelle Y. Willie Pearl: Under the Mountain. Temple Hills, MD: William Ruth, 1992. "Historical fiction for families, set in a Depression-era coal mining town in eastern Kentucky."

Green, Michelle Y. Willie Pearl: Field Day at Big Sandy. Offered by Reading is Fundamental Reading Planet club, for ages 9-12, no date given.

H

Hamilton, Virginia. M. C. Higgins, the Great.  New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1974. Set in the hill country in eastern Ohio. Hamilton depicts a young boy’s fears of living under the shadow of the refuse of the coal mining industry with its slag heaps, sludge, acidic run-off, and mountaintop removal (notes by Susan V. Mead). See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature and Folklore in Books by Virginia Hamilton. 

Hamilton, Virginia. The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl. New York: Harper & Row, 1983. Fascinating historical fantasy about an African goddess created by Hamilton as a sister of John de Conquer and John Henry, who comes to America during the Civil War, getting involved after the war with African Americans and Cherokees hiding in rural Georgia, then migrating north, over the Ohio River, to escape persecution. See more on this book in Folklore in Fiction Bibliography: Virginia Hamilton. Cover by Leo and Diane Dillon at left, showing Pearl and John de Conquer flying to America from Africa as albatrosses.

Hankla, Cathryn. A Blue Moon in Poorwater: A Novel. 1988. Charlottesville: U of VA Press, 1998. "Cathryn Hankla's first novel is an engaging coming-of-age story set in the small Appalachian mining town of Poorwater, Virginia. It is the summer of 1968, and the narrator, inquisitive ten-year-old Dorie Parks, is getting ready to enter fifth grade when her errant older brother Willie returns to town....Dorie's father, a miner, begins a dangerous labor rights crusade after a mining accident leaves a close friend dead" (part of description from publisher web site).

Haseley, Dennis. Shadows. Illus. Leslie W. Bowman. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1991. 72 pp. "Jamie's lonely life with his aunt and uncle in rural West Virginia changes when Grandpa comes to visit and teaches him to make shadow pictures" (Worldcat)

Hermes, Patricia. Sweet By and By. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Set in the mountains of Tennessee, Hermes' novel tells the story of eleven-year-old Blessing, who lives with her grandmother, Moonie. Unfortunately, Moonie's heart is weak, and she wants to prepare Blessing for the inevitable. Blessing spies on the four potential families and stands up to a social worker. 

Hite, Sid. It's Nothing to a Mountain. New York: Henry Holt, 1994. In 1969, a brother and sister, 12 and 14, live with their grandparents on a homestead in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia (where Hite grew up). Among their adventures is an encounter with a 15-year-old runaway living in the wilderness. Hite stresses the "geographic isolation" and "inherently nostalgic mind-set of mountain people in general" (p. 44), as well as the beautiful landscapes and "the ancient mountains'" sympathy with the troubled young characters in the story.

Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas. The Trail on Which They Wept: The Story of a Cherokee Girl. Morristown, NJ: Silver Burdett Press, l992. For details, see article "The Contributions of Rebecca Caudill and Dorothy Hoobler to Appalachian Literature for Young Adults" and Teaching Guide.

Hostetter, Joyce Moyer. Blue. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill/Calkins Creek Books, 2006. A historical novel about a girl during a polio epidemic in Hostetter's home town of Hickory, NC, where an emergency hospital was located in 1944.

Houston, Gloria. Bright Freedom’s Song: A Story of the Underground Railroad. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998. Houston's book teaches children the means by which enslaved people who escaped were hidden on farms and smuggled to the next safe house along their journey.  This Houston novel makes clear the danger that early African Americans were willing to endure to obtain their freedom. Because she develops a strong character of the former slave Marcus, who comes from freedom in Canada to lead others on their journey, Houston refrains from elevating the white family’s role to that of primary hero. This novel is an extremely useful vehicle for teaching young people about a myriad of historical social ills; as a result, readers can gain greater understanding of the stereotypes that young people struggle with even today (notes by Susan V. Mead). See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature.

Houston, Gloria. LittleJim. New York: Beech Tree, 1990. Rpt. Fairview: Bright Mountain Books, 2008. At age 12, Littlejim Houston struggles to live up to his stern father's expectations that he should start acting like a man. Littlejim's loving, German-born mother, along with his sympathetic little sister, the teacher Mr. Osk, and several male relatives and friends, contrast with the gruff father who is never satisfied with his son. Several mishaps result from Littlejim's attempts to do a man's work. During World War I, Bigjim Houston and his brother work hard in the lumber and sawmill business providing supplies for the military. Many details of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina are described, including the astonishing introduction of the first automobile in the community. After Littlejim talks to an Irish man and then witnesses a fatal accident at the sawmill, he is inspired to write about the immigrant experience for an essay contest on what it means to be an American. Even though his father disapproves, Littlejim decides to follow his own scholarly interests and talents, hoping to read his winning essay at the big July Fourth celebration up on Grassy Ridge Bald Mountain. Houston's picture book Littlejim's Gift:  An Appalachian Christmas Story is a prequel to this novel. 

Houston, Gloria. Mountain Valor. Illus. Thomas B. Allen. New York: Putnam & Grosset, 1994. "With her father and brothers gone to serve in the Civil War and her mother sick, teenage Valor ignores what is proper behavior for a girl and fights to defend her North Carolina mountain farm" (publisher review).

Humphrey, William. No Resting Place. New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1989. "A fictionalized tale recounts the forced removal of the Cherokee nation from Georgia, to Tennessee, to Texas along the Trail of Tears and the devastation of that exodus to Native Americans. The Cherokee Indians of the State of Georgia, including those who have been Christian for generations, are forced to move west along the Trail of Tears. Nothing - not the white man's god nor the Chief justice of the Supreme Court - can change their fate" (Worldcat).

Hurmence, Belinda. A Girl Called Boy. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1982. After a picnic in the NC mountains, "a pampered young black girl who has been mysteriously transported back to the days of slavery, struggles to escape her bondage."

J

Janus, Christopher G. Miss 4th of July, Good-bye: A Novel Based on the Life of Niki (Born Xenopoulos) Janus. Chicago: Lake View Press, 1989. About Greek-Americans in West Virginia.

Jenkins, John, and Mark Weaver. Beneath the Sky of an Angry God. The Century War Chronicles, Bk. 1. Manassas, Va: Reconciliation Press, 1997. 60 pp. Fiction about the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

Johnston, Tony. Trail of Tears. Illus. Barry Moser. New York: Blue Sky Press, 1998. "When soldiers force them to leave their village, the Indian people endure suffering and death as they walk along the route which comes to be known as the Trail of Tears" (Worldcat).

Justus, May. See separate bibliography in AppLit.

K

Keehn, Sally M. Gnat Stokes and the Foggy Bottom Swamp Queen. New York: Philomel Books, 2005. In an adaptation of the Scottish ballad "Tam Lin" set in Eastern Tennessee, twelve-year-old Gnat tries to rescue Goodlow Pryce, kidnapped seven years earlier. See more on this book at Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Keehn, Sally M. Magpie Gabbard and the Quest for the Buried Moon. New York: Philomel Books, 2007. 208 pp. Original tall tale about a nineteenth-century thirteen-year-old girl in eastern KY who achieves incredible feats such as returning her brother's chopped-off toe, ending a feud, and rescuing the moon that was trapped by goblins. Inspired partially by "a little-known English tale about the moon coming to earth as a beautiful woman." A native of Maryland, Keehn learned Appalachian language from West Virginians around her when she grew up and from listening to storytellers and visiting Appalachia. Both novels are discussed by Kate Coombs in Book Aunt blog, 16 Jan. 2009, where she identifies a coming trend she calls "rural fantasy" or "tall tale fantasy."

Kendle, Hazel C., and Jennifer L. Bryan. Cole Family Christmas. Illus. Jennifer Julich. Boca Grande, FL: Next Chapter Press, 2008. 74 pp. "One snowy Christmas in the coal-mining town of Benham, Kentucky, nine children and their parents discover that the most precious gifts come from the heart, in this tale based on family members' recollections. Includes a historical family photograph of the Cole family in 1919 and an epilogue about the family's years following the story." Set in 1920. "Based on a real family, the youngest of nine children in the story, Hazel, is the 88-year-old co-author of the book."

Key, Alexander. Escape to Witch Mountain. Illus. Leon B. Wisdom. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968. "When a mysterious man claims to be their uncle and acquires court custody, Tia and Tony, aware of his evil intent, run away to prevent him from enslaving their unusual powers and to try to find someone who may know something about them." Walt Disney film adaptation produced by Jerome Courtland, directed by John Hough, 1975.

Key, Alexander. The Forgotten Door. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965. Children from other planets visit the Appalachian mountains. Teacher Guide by Anne Troy and Phyllis A. Green. Palatine, IL: Novel Units, Inc., 1991, 22 pp.

Key, Alexander. Jagger, the Dog from Elsewhere. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976. Set in Alabama, about a dog from another planet.

Key, Alexander. The Preposterous Adventures of Swimmer. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973. "A talking river otter escapes from captivity, experiences perilous adventures with some cruel humans, and resolves the problems of various troubled people and animals." In discussion of Key's Appalachian fantasies, Roberta Herrin calls this story of an otter with human reason and speech "the most distinctly Appalachian though much of it is predictable" ( "Appalachian Books for All Children." Now and Then,  vol. 4.1, Spring 1987: p. 34)

Key, Alexander, and Malcolm Marmorstein. Return from Witch Mountain. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978. 144 pp. Sequel to Disney movie. "Tia and Tony's visit to Earth is disrupted when Tony is kidnapped by a power-crazed doctor wishing to use the boy's special powers for his own evil purposes."

Key, Alexander. With Daniel Boone on the Caroliny Trail. New York: Junior Literary Guild, 1941. 223 pp. Biographical fiction written and illustrated by Alexander Key.

Knoop, Faith Yingling. Kuni of the Cherokees. Chattanooga: Harlow, 1957. 230 pp.

L

Laskas, Gretchen Moran. The Miner's Daughter. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. A young adult historical novel by the author of A Midwife's Tale (a highly acclaimed 2003 novel for adults about a young woman who grows up learning midwifery from her mother). This novel is about fourteen months in the life of the narrator Willa Laura Lowell, age 16, beginning with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. It ends with a New Year's party attended by Eleanor Roosevelt at Arthurdale, a new town established under the New Deal for West Virginia homesteaders who need jobs and decent homes and schools. The governmental experiment provided escape from the poverty and disease of mining towns where men cannot count on steady mining or farming work and miners' families have no rights or reliable health care. Willa's older half-brother is interested in politics and helping to start unions for miners. The lives of both their parents are threatened by the mother's difficult pregnancy and the father's illness after working on the Hawk's Nest Tunnel at the New River (a real disaster where many men died from injury and exposure to silica). Willa deals with hunger, grueling housework when her mother is ill and the family is destitute, gender bias when she wants to work at harvesting food as men and boys do in summer, her longing for books and schooling, and prejudice when her best friend's and boyfriend's families, as well as African Americans who helped her when no one else would, are excluded from Arthurdale because they are of foreign descent. Friendship with a mission worker from Fairmont gives Willa access to books, a sympathetic confidant, a visit to Fairmont, and an introduction to Eleanor Roosevelt. Willa develops an interest in writing, which can help her protest against the injustice in her society. The author's father's family had moved to Arthurdale in the 1940s and Willa's bleak town of Riley Mines is based on various WV coal camps. References to historical background are provided at the end of the novel.

Lawson, John. You Better Come Home with Me. Illus. Arnold Spilka. New York: Crowell, 1966. Roberta Herrin has described this book as a great "blend of fantasy and Appalachian culture....A psychological fantasy...about a young boy's search to know who he is" ( "Appalachian Books for All Children." Now and Then, vol. 4.1, Spring 1987: p. 34).

Lee, Mildred. The People Therein. New York: New American Library, 1980. 240 pp. Roberta T. Herrin has written that this novel "romanticizes" language (in "'Shall We Teach 'Em or Learn 'Em?': Attitudes toward Language in Appalachian Children's Literature." Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association, vol. 3 (1991): p. 193).

Lenski, Lois. Blue Ridge Billy. New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1946. Roberta T. Herrin has written about this novel's "romanticized" use of language from Ashe County, NC (in "'Shall We Teach 'Em or Learn 'Em?': Attitudes toward Language in Appalachian Children's Literature." Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association, vol. 3 (1991): p. 193). The characters don't comment on their own speech but Lenski's approach is a typical attempt to preserve the Elizabethan English of Appalachia, a perspective that is now outdated.

Lenski, Lois. Coal Camp Girl. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1959. "Nine-year-old Tina Wilson who lives in a West Virginia coal town where life is full of difficulties–mine accidents and work shortages –learns about hunger and hardship but also courage and hope."

Leppard, Lois Gladys. Mandie and the Medicine Man. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 1986.

Lowry, Lois. Rabble Starkey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. "Many things change for twelve-year-old Rabble Starkey, her mother, and her best friend, Veronica Bigelow when Veronica's mother becomes mentally incapacitated and the Starkeys move in with the Bigelows." Set in a small town in WV.

Lynn, Jodi. Glory. New York: Puffin Books, 2003. "Thirteen-year-old Glory Mason's questioning and spirited nature makes life difficult for her in the conservative West Virginia Christian community that is her home and leads to consequences which threaten her survival." As narrator, Glory tells of her love for her beautiful, communal tiny town, as well as her difficulties with following its rules and rigid gender roles as her father expects her to start acting like a woman. Her beautiful, loyal friend Katie has a loving mother who tells the girls about living in Boston before her marriage, while other members of this isolated community have never seen society outside Dogwood or used modern conveniences. Citizens who commit serious offenses are, at the vote of the community, forgiven and allowed to do penance, or cast out forever. On Christmas Eve Glory makes a terrible mistake that changes the lives all their lives and separates her from her home. The later part of the novel depicts her efforts to survive alone in the winter woods and her first friendship outside Dogwood. The sequels (same publisher and date) include Shadow Tree, named after a town where Glory stays for a while, Forget Me Not, and Blue Girl. After making it to Boston, Glory struggles with school, a foster home, illness and friendship.  

Lyon, George Ella. Gina. Jamie. Father. Bear. New York: Atheneum/Richard Jackson, 2002.  This novel's short chapters alternate between two points of view. Gina is a contemporary high school girl in Shaker Heights, Ohio whose mother leaves the family to live with a man in the mountains of North Carolina. Jamie is a boy who lives with his two sisters and father in another dimension, in an ancient or timeless world of folktales such as "Whitebear Whittington." The novel focuses on the quests of Gina, Jamie, and the fathers. The children and fathers seek individual healing and family unity. Cars, workers at McDonalds, and telephones with caller ID help characters mysteriously find each other in the modern world. In the end Gina's psychic experiences have a profound effect on both families, leaving her to ponder the unfathomable relations between past and present, life and death, the worlds of dreams and everyday consciousness. See more on this book in Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction and Lyon's web site.

Lyon, George Ella. Here and Then. New York: Orchard, 1994. A time-travel story about the Civil War. See AppLit's bibliography for details.

Lyon, George Ella. Borrowed Children. Rpt. New York: U Press of Kentucky, 1999. See AppLit's bibliography for details.

M

McKenna, Colleen O'Shaughnessy. The Brightest Light. New York: Scholastic, 1992. Set in Romney, West Virginia. "A young West Virginia girl becomes involved in the problems of the family for whom she babysits."

Madden, Kerry. Gentle's Holler. New York: Viking, 2005. A novel focusing on one girl in a large family in Maggie Valley, NC at the beginning of the 1960s. See the author's fascinating web site, Kerry Madden.com, for details and music to accompany the songs that the protagonist makes up for herself. Livy Two tells about her older sister who died at birth (Livy One), the arrival and acceptance of the wiener dog Uncle Hazard, the children's building of his doghouse called the Pinecone Palace, dangerous encounters with lost children and hornets, the family's painful realization that the toddler Gentle can't see, her father's song writing and struggles to get jobs in the music business, learning to get along better with her grandmother, her brother Emmett's desire to go off and work at the new Ghost Town in the Sky, his discovery of their estranged uncle at the mountaintop amusement park, visiting the bookmobile and its kind librarian in Maggie Valley, singing at a folk festival, and a family disaster at the end of the novel.

Madden, Kerry. Jessie's Mountain. New York: Viking, 2008. Third novel in the Maggie Value trilogy about the Weems family. This novel contains excerpts from the diary of Jessie, Livy Two's mother. Livy learns to understand her mother and grandmother better by reading about her mother's youth in the 1940s, when her father became ill and died. As her own father gradually recovers from his brain injury, not yet able to make a living, Livy Two goes away on an adventure which she hopes will help the family finances and prevent their planned move into the town of Enka to live with their grandmother, but her attempt to seek her fortune causes quite a few troubles. Their mother's employment at Champion Paper Mill brings benefits and difficult adjustments to the family. The marriage of the bookmobile librarian to a history teacher is an impending event throughout the novel. Although Livy Two does not much like Mr. Pickle, the fiance, he is persuaded to help the Weems family begin a promising new venture in their mountain community. (For more on Champion Paper Mill in Canton, see AppLit page on George Loveland's 2006 book Under the Workers' Caps.)

Madden, Kerry. Louisiana's Song. New York: Viking, 2007. Sequel to Gentle's Holler. In 1963, the Weems family struggles to cope with the father's long recuperation from an injury. The narrator Livy Two continues to write songs about her experiences, including a song about her shy, artistically talented, tall sister Louise (Louisiana). The family's efforts to make ends meet include gardening, selling sweaters and baby blankets knit by the mother, Emmett's job at Ghost Town in the Sky on Buck Mountain (which was really built in 1960), Becksie's job at the Pancake House, Livy's job on the bookmobile, selling paintings by Louisiana, and Livy's attempts to sell songs written by her father and herself. Grandmother Horace stays with them to help out but wants them to move to her town of Enka.

Markle, Sandra. The Fledglings. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press, 1992.  After she runs away from Atlanta to find the grandfather she didn't know she had on Snowbird Mountain (near Cherokee, NC), Kate (age 14) learns the language and customs of the Tsa la ki (Cherokee) from him. See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature and Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Miles, Celia H. Mattie's Girl: An Appalachian Childhood. Infinity Publishing.com, 2002. 181 pp. Set in the North Carolina mountains. 

Miller, Jim Wayne. Newfound: A Novel. New York:  Orchard, 1989. "A boy growing up in his grandparents' house in the Appalachians learns about the town and the people around him, their habits, stories, and lore."

N

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Series about the Malloy sisters vs. the Hatford brothers in West Virigina:

Boys against Girls. New York: Delacorte Press, 1994. "The Hatford brothers cannot imagine spending Thanksgiving dinner with the Malloy sisters as the practical jokes and rivalries between the two families continue." Sequel to The Girls Get Even.

Boys in Control. New York: Delacorte Press, 2003. "Once again the Hatford brothers and the Malloy sisters find themselves pitted against each other when embarrassing pictures of the boys turn up in the girls' basement, and the boys try to figure out how to get them back."

The Boys Return. New York: Delacorte Press, 2001. "The Benson boys return to Buckman for spring vacation and concoct a prank involving a non-existent ghost, continuing the practical joke war between the Hatford boys and the Malloy girls." Sequel to A Traitor Among the Boys. 

Boys Rock! New York: Delacorte Press, 2005. "The feud between the Hatford brothers and the neighboring Malloy sisters continues over the summer when they reluctantly join forces to publish a newspaper."

The Boys Start the War. New York: Delacorte Press, 1993. "Disgusted that a family with three girls moves into the house across the river, nine-year-old Wally and his three brothers declare a practical joke war on the girls."

The Girls Get Even. New York: Delacorte, 1993. "As Halloween approaches, the three Malloy sisters find themselves continually trying to get even with the four Hatford brothers, who have been playing tricks on them since the Malloys moved from Ohio to West Virginia." Sequel to The Boys Start the War.

The Girls' Revenge. New York: Yearling, 1998. "As Christmas approaches, Caroline Malloy continues the feud between her sisters and the Hatford brothers by making Wally Hatford be her partner for a special project at school."

Girls Rule! New York: Delacorte Press, 2004. "The Malloy girls and the Hatford boys try to outdo each other in a quest to earn money and choose how to participate in the annual Buckman, West Virginia, Strawberry Festival."

The Girls Take Over. New York: Delacorte Press, 2002. "The Malloy girls and the Hatford boys continue to get in trouble as they try to outdo each other in bottle racing, spelling, and baseball."

A Spy Among the Girls. New York: Delacorte Press, 2000. "Are Beth and Josh really in love or just pretending to be in order to spy and continue the feud between the Malloy sisters and the Hatford brothers?" Sequel to A Traitor Among the Boys. 

A Traitor Among the Boys. New York: Yearling, 1999. "Despite a New Year's resolution to be nice to their neighbors the Malloy girls, the Hatford boys find themselves continuing their rivalry and war of practical jokes."

Who Won the War? New York: Delacorte Press, 2006. "As the end of summer approaches, the Malloy girls decide they will really try to get along with the Hatford boys before moving back to Ohio, but after all the practical jokes and competitions of the previous year, the boys just do not trust the girls."

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Sang Spell. New York: Aladdin, 1998. "When his mother is killed in an automobile accident, high-schooler Josh decides to hitchhike across country, and finds himself trapped in a mysterious village somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains, among a group of people who call themselves Melungeons." While staying with them, he learns about their business of gathering and selling ginseng ("sang").

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Send No Blessings. New York: Puffin, 1992. 231 pp. Ages 12 and up. Set in West Virginia. " A teenager in a large family that lives in a trailer yearns for love, approval, an escape from endless chores, and a chance to make something of herself. When a good and decent man, seven years her senior, falls in love with her, she realizes marriage to him could solve her problems."

Shiloh Trilogy

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Saving Shiloh. New York: Aladdin, 1997. Sequel to Shiloh and Shiloh Season. Marty's family continues the process of making friends with their neighbor Judd.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Shiloh. New York: Yearling, 1991. A novel inspired by a real dog in WV, about a boy's moral dilemma when he tries to save a beagle being abused by Judd, a neighbor. He hides the dog from his family because he has no legal right to provide a sanctuary for the mistreated dog." See sequels above and below. Adapted as a feature film, 1996. Good Dog Productions, a Utopia Pictures/Carl Borack production in association with Zeta Entertainment; a Dale Rosenbloom film; produced by Zane W. Levitt, Dale Rosenbloom; written for the screen and directed by Dale Rosenbloom. Warner Home Video DVD 2006, with introduction by Roger Ebert and interviews with cast, filmmakers and the author. See also Arquilevich, Gabriel, Cathy Gilbert, and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. A Guide for Using Shiloh in the Classroom: Based on the Novel Written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Westminster, CA: Teacher Created Resources, 2007.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Shiloh Season. New York: Aladdin, 1996. Sequel to Shiloh. "When mean and angry Judd, who has never known kindness, takes to drinking and mistreats his dogs, Marty discovers how deep a hurt can go and how long it takes to heal." Marty's work with the local doctor, which begins as a way of paying a debt for the doctor's treatment of his dog, inspires his ambition to work toward becoming a veterinarian.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Wrestle the Mountain. Follett, 1971. Set near Morgantown, West Virginia. "Frustrated by the narrowness of his West Virginia mining town, a boy [age 11] with a talent for woodcarving yearns for a different way of life."

O

O'Connor, Barbara. Moonpie and Ivy. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2001. Rural Southern Georgia setting. Twelve-year-old Pearl is left at her Aunt Ivy's farmhouse by her irresponsible mother.  She meets Moonpie, who lives with his ailing grandmother.  Pearl's time with Ivy and Moonpie is one of love and learning.

Oughton, Jerrie. Music from a Place Called Half Moon. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1995.  Jerrie Oughton’s book is a moving depiction of tragedies which result from prejudice and reactions to prejudice in a small North Carolina town near Asheville. The reader walks with young Edie Jo as she overcomes the ignorance that results from lack of contact with people who are racially and ethnically different, towards a warm and deep understanding that comes with opening her life to those same people.  The book envelops a mystery that keeps the reader engaged, and the interpersonal dynamics seem familiar as the family struggles with differing opinions about contact with their Cherokee neighbors. The theme is hard-hitting and direct, yet the context of personal and community growth brings the story home so that children empathize and learn from the ethnocentric mistakes of the characters in this novel (notes by Susan V. Mead). See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia! Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature.

P

Partridge, Elizabeth. Clara and the Hoodoo Man. New York: Puffin, 1996. The novel tells of everyday experiences of a young girl growing up in mountain traditions of ginseng gathering, home births with midwives, and healing illnesses with herbs. Clara’s family celebrates the Juneteenth holiday, observed in many African American communities as the day that word of emancipation got to slaves in Georgia—months after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.  A Euro-American doctor provides assistance beyond the traditional healing practices of Clara’s family; however, it is mountain tradition of the African American Hoodoo Man which helps most when Clara’s sister needs healing. Clara's mother has to overcome negative stereotypes of this outcast man (notes by Susan V. Mead). See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature and Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia. New York: HarperTrophy, 1977. Winner of Newbery Medal and other awards. Paterson's realistic masterpiece is an insightful and moving portrayal of a friendship between a fifth-grade boy and girl in the mountains of rural Virginia. The only boy in a struggling farm family, Jesse suffers from isolation and gender bias, as only the "hippie" music teacher appreciates his artistic talent. He finds a soul mate in Leslie, the new girl who is scorned and envied at school because of her academic talents; her progressive, intellectual parents who don't own a TV; and her background in upscale suburbs to the north. Differences in school, family life, religion and social customs are navigated by these children who learn to share their talents and lives with each other, building a secret refuge in the woods. They name it Terabithia after C. S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles. When disaster strikes, the novel deals sensitively with the stages of grief and its positive effects on Jesse's strained relations with family and teachers. Paterson was the middle child in a family of five, like Jesse, and her teaching experience in a 6th grade at a rural Virginia school, as well as her experiences as a mother and a cancer patient, also informed this novel. Paterson and Stephanie Tolan adapted the novel as a play.

Film adaptation released February 2007, with screenplay by David Paterson (the author's son, whose childhood friend Lisa Hill was killed by lightning). The film is updated, with a few changes in plot and special effects used to depict Jess and Leslie's imaginary world of Terabithia, but it is quite faithful to the book, with excellent acting. The Bridge to Terabithia web site by Walden Media contains film clips and teacher resources for the book and movie, including background on Paterson and copies of some of her compelling speeches and essays about writing for children. The Disney Bridge to Terabithia web site contains additional film and audio clips, brief behind-the-scenes comments by cast, crew, and Paterson, a game, related downloads, and other resources.

Paterson, Katherine. Come Sing, Jimmie Jo. New York:  Puffin, 1995. A story about country music and a boy raised in West Virginia. 

Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved. New York: Avon, 1980. Although this award-winning young adult novel is about twin sisters growing up on an island in the Chesapeake Bay in the 1940s, in the end of the novel Louise moves to Kentucky. She wants to be a doctor but she is persuaded to try nursing and transfer to University of Kentucky. Louise (the narrator of the novel) explains, when she accepts an internship as a nurse-midwife in a western Virginia community, that "A mountain-locked valley is more like an island than anything else I know," with "green grass" that is "often treacherous" and roads that are difficult to navigate in army surplus jeeps (chap. 19). Polish and Lithuanian immigrants who had been miners struggle to farm the land in this area where no mines are open and the Scotch-Irish farmers consider them outsiders. In these mountains Louise marries a Catholic widower with several children and delivers a neighbor's twins. The novel's final chapters, as well as other writings by Paterson, are reprinted in Crosscurrents of Children's Literature: An Anthology of Texts and Criticism (ed. J. D. Stahl, Tina L. Hanlon and Elizabeth Lennox Keyser. New York: Oxford UP, 2007).

Paterson, Katherine. Park's Quest. New York: Puffin, 1988. Parkington Waddell Broughton V is nearly twelve, but his mother still won't talk about his father who died in Vietnam. An avid reader of Arthurian fiction, Park repeats medieval scenes in his mind that parallel his own quest. After he goes alone from their D. C. home to the new Vietnam Memorial and tries to get his mother to talk about it, she sends him to visit his father's family. They are prominent landowners in far southwestern Virginia with a family military history going back to the American Revolution. With its patriarch incapacitated by strokes, the large farm and old-fashioned house are shabby. The city boy has trouble swallowing whole milk and greasy country food cooked by the housekeeper from Roanoke, but he learns to milk cows, enjoy fresh spring water, and shoot his father's gun. The uncle Park didn't know he had has a Vietnamese wife, whose daughter is also unaware of the full story of her link to Park's family.In spite of Park's prejudice against Asians and Thanh's hostile behavior, they are brought together caring for a crow that is accidentally shot. Both children discover the secrets of their parents' past and begin to learn how to communicate with their disabled grandfather.

Patterson, Nancy Ruth. The Christmas Cup. Illus. Leslie W. Bowman. New York: Orchard, 1989. (This book was made into a play and performed at Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, Virginia, beginning in 1995.)

Patterson, Nancy Ruth. The Shiniest Rock of All. Illus. Karen A. Gerome. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1991. 80 pp. Robert Renolds has a speech defect.  He can't pronounce his R's. He comes to realize that everyone is not perfect.  (This book was made into a play and performed at Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, Virginia.)

Patterson, Nancy Ruth. A Simple Gift. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. A ten-year-old New Yorker summers at her grandmother's home in North Carolina. She wants most to have a part in a new play based on one of her mother's children's books. She gets a part but jeopardizes the play through a bad decision.

Patterson, Nancy Ruth. The Winner's Walk. Illus. Thomas F. Yezerski. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2006. Publisher description: "Case Callahan isn’t a star swimmer like his sister, Quinn. He’s not a champion horse trainer like his father, or a popular stage actor like his mother. Still, Case is determined to make his mark. But one effort after another–talent show, science fair, junior horse show–is a terrible failure. It isn’t until Case comes upon a lost dog that he finds his path to success. The dog, whom Case names Noah, is certainly one of a kind–what other golden retriever can answer the telephone and put dishes in the dishwasher? Together Case and Noah seem destined to become a trophy-winning team. Noah, however, is so smart because he was trained to be a service dog, and when Case learns about his dog’s past, he realizes there is more than one way to be a winner."

Perry, Tristan. Furry Tails: The Adventures of Cinnamon Persimmon. Publish America, 2006. 108 pp. First in a planned series of books for middle grades based on the author's apricot-colored toy poodle in southwestern VA. Cinnamon is a mischievous puppy.

Petersen, Randy. The Appalachian Ambush. Choice Adventures, #15. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1994. "The reader is asked to make choices which will determine the outcome of a hiking trip adventure for a group of Christian friends on the Appalachian Trail," who try to stop a robbery of Fort Knox.

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Silent Thunder, A Civil War Story. New York: Jump At The Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, 1999. The narrative alternates between a sister and brother who are slaves on a Virginia plantation during the Civil War. Learning to read in secret and decisions about running away are among the problems that change their lives. A reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by Frederick Douglass in Boston occurs near the end of the novel.

Potts, Mary L. Fluharty. Jimmie Lee. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance, 1997. Set in WV farm country during and after the Depression.

R

Ransom, Candice. Finding Day's Bottom. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 2006. Publisher's description: "After eleven-year-old Jane-Ery loses her father in a sawmill accident, Grandpap comes down from Salter’s Mountain to live with her and her mother. To Jane-Ery’s surprise, Grandpap’s funny ways and strange stories bring her a comfort she never expected. He tells her about Day’s Bottom, 'a place of light and wonderment' that has 'anything a body could ever want.' Jane-Ery wonders: Could she find Daddy there? So begins her search for a new kind of understanding of her father’s death. This gently told, beautifully rendered novel brings to life a time and place readers will come to love, Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains in the 1950s." See more on this book in Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Ransom, Candice. Time Spies Series. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast/Mirrorstone, 2006-. Series for Grades 2-4, Ages 7-10 . Mattie, Alex, and Sophie Chapman move to the Gray Horse Inn in rural Virginia, where their parents open a bed and breakfast. In the first novel, Secret in the Tower (illus. Greg Call, 2006), the children discover that the seemingly boring old house near Wildcat Mountain contains a secret tower with a hidden spyglass that takes them to various places in history and legend. Guests who stay in the Jefferson Suite (Travel Guides) leave postcards with clues and a letter at the end giving factual background about their time travel adventure. Related activities are explained at the end, such as writing with invisible ink and in code in Book 1. The first adventure involves their own house during the Revolutionary War and a plot to kidnap Governor Thomas Jefferson. Book 3, Giant in the Garden (illus. Greg Call and Jim Bernadin, 2007), takes them into a fairy tale similar to Sophie's favorite, "Jack and the Beanstalk." In Book 4, The Magician in the Trunk (2007), they learn magic from Houdini at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, where part of their adventure involves the Virginia building (a replica of George Washington's Mount Vernon home) and possessions of Thomas Jefferson on display. Book 5, Signals in the Sky (2007), involves spies in Civil War Virginia. Book 10, about the War of 1812 in D. C., was published in 2008. See more details and activities for readers and teachers at Ransom's web site and Time Spies Official Home Page .

Ray, Delia. Ghost Girl: A Blue Ridge Mountain Story. New York: Clarion, 2003. Alice Sloane, the narrator, is a light-haired girl sometimes called Ghost Girl by other kids. She is 11-14 in 1929-32, when the first school is built near her mountain home and the summer home of President Herbert Hoover, Camp Rapidan. Alice's family, especially her mother, is devastated by the recent death of her younger brother, Riley. The secret Alice has been hiding about the fire in their cabin when she was home alone with Riley comes out in the course of the novel. Aunt Birdy, Alice's grandmother, is a colorful, hardy mountain woman who convinces Alice's mother that Alice needs to learn to read and teaches Alice to look more deeply into things. As the Author's Note explains, this story is based on the letters and papers of Christine Vest Witcofski, the teacher in the story who is hired to teach and live in the school that the Hoovers build when they realize the community has no school. When Alice's arm is broken, Miss Vest meets her future husband, a medical aide in the Marines named Witcofski. The novel describes the Hoovers' visits to the school, the gifts sent by outsiders, and the school's trip to the Madison County fair. It depicts the prejudices of reporters and benefactors who intrude on the school as it opens and the long struggle of children and adults as they learn to read, helped at times by the Sears, Roebuck catalog. There is one photograph of Mrs. Hoover at the school with the teacher and children. See Ray's web site (click on her name above) for more photographs and background. 

Reaver, Chap. Bill. New York: Delacorte Press, 1994 . "With the help of her faithful dog Bill and the officer responsible for putting her father in jail, thirteen-year-old Jessica faces changes in her life when she realizes that her father will not stop drinking and making moonshine ." Set in rural Kentucky.

Reeder, Carolyn. Grandpa's Mountain. New York: Avon/Camelot, 1991. Eleven-year-old Carrie (who lives in D. C. with her parents) loves spending summers on her grandparents' farm, helping in their rural store and lunchroom in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia during the Depression, until she and Grandpa become involved in conflicts over the government's decision to displace the farmers in order to build the Shenandoah National Park. A variety of characters represent different attitudes toward the advantages and disadvantages of relocating to the valley with funds and services provided by the government. Compare this book to, or use as an introduction, Candice F. Ransom's picture book When the Whippoorwill Calls. Illus. Kimberly Bulcken Root. New York: Tambourine, 1993.

Reeder, Carolyn. Moonshiner's Son. Illus. Tim O'Brien. New York: Aladdin Books, 1993. 208 pp. "Twelve-year-old Tom Higgins is learning the craft of making whiskey. Even though Prohibition forbids the production and sale of alcoholic beverages, Tom is determined to be a good apprentice. He is, after all, a moonshiner's son. His father has raised moonshining to an art, and Tom wants nothing more than to please this rough, distant man. Then a preacher comes to the wilds of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains to rid Bad Camp Hollow of the "evils of liquor." This is when Tom and his father begin their campaign to match wits with the preacher and try to outsmart the law officers he calls in. Tom's father is eloquent in defense of a way of life long and respectfully lived by the Higgins family. But the preacher and his pretty daughter make a powerful case against it. And when drink causes a tragedy in the community, Tom Higgins is torn. . ." (SimonSays.com) 

Ritter, John H. Choosing Up Sides. New York: Philomel, 1998. Novel about baseball set on the Ohio River in the 1920s, in Crown Falls, Ohio . The thirteen-year-old narrator who discovers baseball has a preacher father who disapproves of sports. Named to the Adult Crossover List by the Children's Book Council (books of interest to adults as well as children). Excerpt and other background available on Ritter's web site. His family was scattered around Ohio and WV in the 1920s.

Rockwood, Joyce. Enoch's Place. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. "Fifteen-year-old Enoch, oldest of the children in their Blue Ridge Mountain community of hippies, leaves his family's farm to live with his cousins in the city."

Rockwood, Joyce. Groundhog’s Horse. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978. 115 pp. "An eleven-year-old Cherokee sets off on a one-boy raid of a Creek town to rescue his 'unusual' horse." Also published as The Midnight Horse, Scholastic, 1978.

Rockwood, Joyce. Long Man's Song. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975. "A young pre-Columbian Cherokee living in the southern Appalachian mountains proves himself as a medicine man while trying to cure his sister's illness."

Rockwood, Joyce. To Spoil the Sun. New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976. "Forewarned by omens, a sixteenth-century Cherokee Indian village in the southern Appalachians is struck by an 'invisible fire,' a smallpox epidemic brought by European explorers."

Rylant, Cynthia. A Blue-Eyed Daisy. 1985. New York: Aladdin, 2001. "Relates episodes in the life of eleven-year-old Ellie and her family who live in a coal mining town in West Virginia."

Rylant, Cynthia. A Fine White Dust. New York: Dell Yearling, 1986. A 1987 Newbery Honor book. This is a short, powerful novel about a boy's struggles with fanaticism, disillusionment, faith, family and friendship. Pete lives in a North Carolina town, but it could be any small American town where Baptist revivals are held. While fingering the dust from a broken ceramic cross he had made in childhood, Pete decides he must tell the story of "the Man" in order to put behind him the painful experience of the previous year, the summer after seventh grade. He tells about a strange man who hitchhiked into town. Pete imagines he is a murderer but the man turns out to be very charismatic revival preacher. After Pete is saved on the first revival night, he becomes obsessed with wanting to be near him. Struggling with differences in the people he loves—the lack of faith in his parents and his best friend since kindergarten, Rufus—Pete describes his own pursuit of religious experience since he was quite young. When the preacher convinces Pete to run away and preach, Pete learns to appreciate his home and parents. Reliable, practical Rufus helps Pete return home when the preacher runs away with a local girl and leaves Pete devastated. After a period of depression, Pete embraces forgiveness, reconciliation, and a desire to replace his broken pieces with a more complete faith.

Rylant, Cynthia. Missing May. New York: Dell, 1992. Set in West Virginia. Winner of 1993 Newbery Award. For details, see Lesson plan by Nancy Polette, 2000, in Nancy Polette's Children's Literature Site.

S

Salsi, Lynn. Young Ray Hicks Learns the Jack Tales. Illus. James Young. Montville Press, 2005. A biographical novel about the youth of Ray Hicks, the famous storyteller from Beech Mountain, NC.

Seabrooke, Brenda. The Bridges of Summer. New York: Cobblehill Books, 1992. Republished by www.backinprint.com i Universe in conjunction with the Authors Guild, 2007. When she reluctantly comes to stay on a small South Carolina island, fourteen-year-old Zarah gradually accepts her grandmother's Gullah traditions and different way of life" (Worldcat summary). A Notable Book from the National Council of Social Studies. "Strong, smart, and creative, Zarah is a memorable heroine." - The Horn Book. NOTE: Although this book is not set in Appalachia, WV librarian Phyllis Wilson Moore recommends it as "one of my favorite 'coming of age' books by a WV author."

Seabrooke, Brenda. The Haunting of Holroyd Hill. New York: Puffin, 1995. "When her family moves to the Virginia countryside, eleven-year-old Melinda, her older brother, and their new friend Dan work together to solve the mystery of a Civil War-era ghost who is haunting their house."  (The Haunting at Stratton Falls, Dutton, 2000, is about another Civil War ghost in a house in New York state during World War II.)

Seabrooke, Brenda. The Haunting of Swain's Fancy. New York: Dutton's Children's Books, 2003. "Eleven-year-old Taylor spends the summer with her father and his new family in a historic house in West Virginia and, while contending with hostility from her stepsister Nicole, attempts to solve the mystery of ghosts who haunt the site." While Taylor's stepmother prepares the house for a local history event, Taylor researches the Civil War Swain family. It was torn apart by a love triangle and divided political loyalties, with a Quaker father who remained neutral and two boys who joined opposing armies as the Union and Confederacy fought over control of their part of the eastern WV panhandle. Taylor and Nicole, with their brother and a neighbor boy, put on a play re-enacting the tragic historical events they have brought to light in their house.

Seckar, Alvena. Misko. Illus. Decie Merwin. New York: Oxford UP, 1956. A story of unsafe mining conditions, it also mixes a love story, a fairy tale cottage, and a morality tale. "Ten-year-old Misko, along with his mother and little sister, must find a new home with fellow East European [Lithuanian] immigrants after his father's death in a coal mining accident."

Seckar, Alvena. Trapped in the Old Mine. 1953. Bolchazy Carducci, 1999. Set in Appalachia. Twelve-year-old Andy's parents have immigrated from Slovkia and settled in Coal Patch.

Seckar, Alvena. Zuska of the Burning Hills. 1952. Bolchazy Carducci, 1999. Set in West Virginia, this is the story of a preteen girl with Slovak immigrant parents.

Showell, Ellen Harvey. Cecelia and the Blue Mountain Boy. Illus. Margot Tomes. New York:  Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1983. 76 pp. "Enroute to the Chester Music Festival, a boy hears a strange story about the lively young girl who changed Chester from a solemn and gloomy town to one where people dance and make music." Also adapated as a musical play.

Showell, Ellen Harvey. The Ghost of Tillie Jean Cassaway. 1978. Illus. Stephen Gammell. Lincoln, NE: Authors Guild Backprint.com Edition, 2000. 1982 South Carolina Children's Book Award. "Twelve-year-old Willy Barbour and his sister follow different trails as they pursue the ghost of a young girl who died in their Appalachian community."

Showell, Ellen Harvey. Our Mountain. Illus. Nancy Carpenter. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1991. "Two brothers living in the mountains of West Virginia describe their family, home, and favorite pastimes." Based on true stories. An excerpt appears in the anthology Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia.

Slate, Joseph. Crossing the Trestle. New York: Cavendish Children's Books, 1999. About an 11-year-old boy in WV in 1944. He has to cross a high trestle to get to school. His older sister and whole family struggle with some painful hardships. See the author's site (Joe Slate) for more information.

Slayton, Fran Cannon. When the Whistle Blows. New York: Philomel Books/Penguin Young Readers Group, 2009. "Jimmy Cannon tells about his life in the 1940s as the son of a West Virginia railroad man, loving the trains and expecting one day to work on the railroad like his father and brothers" (Worldcat). Based on the author's father's youth in Rowlesburg, WV in the 1940s, when trains changed from coal to diesel (see author's web site for details).

Slone, Verna Mae. Rennie's Way. Illus. Len Slone. KY: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1994. "Set in Eastern Kentucky's Lonesome Holler of the 1920s and '30s, this first novel, an expanded, refocused and retitled edition of Slone's 1982 self-published Sarah Ellen, deals with the harsh life of Rennie Slone" (Publisher's Weekly).

Smith, Doris Buchanan. Return to Bitter Creek. New York: Puffin, 1986. Twelve-year-old Lacey Bittner returns to her ancestral home in Bitter Creek, NC, where her mother's parents and brother run the grocery store, gas station and garage. As Lacey observes at the end, it takes "a year and a death and a foal" to "melt" the hard feelings that divide the extended family.  Lacey and a cousin her age try to be friends but they are caught in a feud between their grandmother and Campbell, Lacey's mother, which began with a custody battle that had caused Campbell to flee to Colorado when Lacey was two. Conflict continues because Campbell has returned with her Iranian-born partner, who works as a blacksmith at a nearby craft school. David Habeeb, a loving father to Lacey although not married to Campbell, teaches Lacey how to become a peacemaker like himself. He also helps her learn how to identify local wildflowers, overcome her prejudice about Appalachian speech, and enjoy weekly square dances and family Sunday dinners. Lacey and her mother help each other through hard times, working together on crafting the leather products they sell, and on raising a new horse and building a home. They have a brief reunion with Lacey's biological father when he helps with their new cabin. Names are important throughout the novel because learning to call people by the names they prefer is part of the healing process, and so is the family quilt made by Grandmom.  

Smith, Susan Mathias. The Booford Summer: A Girl and the Dog Next Door. Illus. Andrew Glass. New York: Clarion Books, 1994. Set in rural Virginia. "Ten-year-old Hayley worries about the dog across the street, whose moody owner keeps him tied up and never walks him." Hayley, the narrator, who has five cats, shares a love of animals with a nearby farmer. Full-page pencil drawings by Andrew Glass.

Steele, William O. Flaming Arrows. Illus. Paul Galdone. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1957. Rpt. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990 with introduction by Jean Fritz. "An Indian attack on a fort in the Tennessee wilderness makes young Chad Rabun realize that it is wrong to condemn one person for the misdeeds of another." Steele, also known by the pseudonym Wilson Gage, is the author or many other popular historical novels.

Steele, William O. The Man with the Silver Eyes. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976. "Until he learns the reason for the arrangement, a young Cherokee boy has mixed emotions about living for a year with a white man."

Steele, William O. Over-Mountain Boy: The North Carolina Mountaineers in the Revolution. Illus. Fritz Kredel. New York: Aladdin Books, 1952.

Still, James. Sporty Creek. 1977. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1999. For details, see AppLit's James Still's Books for and about Children: Bibliography and Study Guide.

Street, Julia Montgomery. Drovers' Gold. Illus. Paul Galdone. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1961. About a runaway girl in NC in the 1880s.

Street, Julia Montgomery. Moccasin Tracks. Illus. Frank Kramer. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1958. Friendship between Cherokees and white settlers.

Stuart, Jesse. Andy Finds a Way. Illus. Robert Henneberger. New York: Whittlesey House, 1961. Rpt. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1992.

Stuart, Jesse. Come to My Tomorrowland. Nashville: Aurora Publishers, 1971. Rpt. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1995.

Stuart, Jesse. The Beatinest Boy. Illus. Robert Henneberger. New York: Whittlesey House, 1953 .

Stuart, Jesse. Hie to the Hunters. New York: Whittlesey House, 1950. Rpt. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1996. Published in German as Kentucky-Melodie: Roman. Bayreuth: Hestia, 1960.

Stuart, Jesse. Old Ben. Illus. Richard Cuffari. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970 . Rpt. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1992. "When young Shan befriends a bull black snake, his Kentucky mountain family decides that perhaps the only good snake isn't a dead snake after all. " Also reprinted in Responsibilities [grade 6]. Ed. Mary O'Hara, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and Jesse Stuart. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

Stuart, Jesse. A Penny's Worth of Character. Illus. Rocky Zornes. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2001. "An earlier version of this story appeared in The Progressive Farmer and  Scholastic Teacher." In this moralistic chapter book, Shan is sent to the store by his mother. She tells him not to take a sack that has a hole in it, but he does anyway because, if he returns 10 sacks to the store, he will get enough pennies back to get his favorite treat of a chocolate bar and a lemon soda pop. He has a nervous time hoping the old storekeeper won't check that particular sack and then his treats don't taste good. When his mother finds out, she makes him walk back to the store in the hot sun to take another sack. He has a miserable time facing up to his misdeed, but he feels much better after he does, when the storekeeper and another neighbor praise his mother and Shan realizes he should appreciate her for teaching him well. The story about Abraham Lincoln walking miles to return pennies to a woman after he made a mistake giving change is evoked while Shan is learning his lesson. Except for the time when he is feeling guilty, he enjoys observing many kinds of creatures and plants along the mountain path to the store. Wonderful black and white drawings by Henneberger, including some double-page spreads, show the farm, the store, and the natural world (click on thumbnail at left).

Stuart, Jesse. La quema / cuento de Jesse Stuart. In Lloro por la tierra y lecturas afines by Mildred D. Taylor, Richard Wormser, Liliana Heker, Gerda Lerner, Jesse Stuart, and Yvonne Nelson Perry. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 1997. Bilingual sourcebook available.

Stuart, Jesse. Red Mule. New York: Whittlesey House, 1955. Rpt. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1993.

Stuart, Jesse. A Ride with Huey, the Engineer: Fact and Fiction from a Colorful Era of America's Past. Illus. Robert Henneberger. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966 . Rpt. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1988.

Stuart, Jesse. The Rightful Owner. Illus. Robert Henneberger. New York: Whittlesey House, 1960.

For more on Jesse Stuart books, see Short Stories, below, and also List of Jesse Stuart Books in the WVU Libraries and The Jesse Stuart Foundation: A Regional Press and Bookseller (Ashland, KY), which sells a complete set of Stuart's junior books..

Sulkin, Karen Adams. The Mystery of Roanoke. Roanoke, VA: The Roanoke Times, 1998. Sulkin's book may be even more accessible to young people because of the ghost story genre and its more subtle references to history. Young readers can use their imaginations to follow the path of the ghost of the enslaved young man who drowned on his way to freedom.  With the help of two present day Euro-American children, the ghost is able to recreate the moment of his century old escape attempt and complete it successfully (notes by Susan V. Mead). See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature. For other serialized stories by Sulkin set in Virginia, such as "Ghost Train Journey" (based at the Roanoke Transportation Museum) and "Secrets on the Wind" (about the Civil War on a plantation near Salem), see The Roanoke Times Newspapers in Education web site.

Skurzynski, Gloria, and Alane Ferguson. Night of the Black Bear: A Mystery in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mysteries in Our National Parks Series, no. 13. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2007. 157 pp. "While their mother investigates a series of bear attacks in and near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Jack and Ashley learn about country music and Cherokee people from two new friends, one of whom is keeping a secret" (Worldcat). Arguments over ancestral Cherokee lands in the parks play a role in the plot. Includes an Afterword by a park naturalist about black bear behavior and problems with tourists.

T

Tubb, Kristin O'Donnell. Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different. New York: Delacorte Press, 2008. "Autumn Winifred Oliver, an eleven-year-old girl living in Cades Cove, Eastern Tennessee, during the Depression, watches her grandfather as he tries to persuade his neighbors to back the proposed Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but when they discover that the government representative is lying to them, Gramps becomes even more resourceful. Includes author's note about the history of the park."

V

Vaughn, Sherry T. Grandpa's Eyes. Illus. Ernie Ross. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1996. See more on this book in Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Vaughn, Sherry T. Melvin's Melons. Illus. Ernie Ross. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1995. See more on this book in Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

W

Ware, Cheryl. Catty-Corners. Illus. Paul Yalowitz. New York: Orchard, 1998."Cheryl Ware will have readers rolling on the floor with laughter, as Venola Mae takes on puberty, her grandma's eccentricities and a trailer full of cats in this hilarious sequel to Flea Circus Summer" (Book Jacket).  Venola Mae Cutright, the protagonist of the series, writes, in diary format, all about her exciting time with Grandma. The child-like drawings and short, handwritten notes add a sense of realness to the diary format of the book. The setting is West Virginia.   

Ware, Cheryl. Flea Circus Summer. New York: Orchard, 1997. In the first book of the Venola Mae series, the protagonist writes letters to the Ultra Underwater Flea Circus Company, complaining about the lack of life in her recently purchased Underwater Flea Circus People.  She also writes to her best friend, Sally, providing a humorous recounting of her summer activities. All of the Venola Mae books are set in West Virginia.  See the Trivia Page in AppLit for an interesting tidbit of information on this particular book.

Ware, Cheryl. Venola in Love. Illus. Kristin Sorra.  New York: Orchard, 2000. In the third installment of the Venola Mae series, Cheryl Ware's protagonist now has email. She continues to write about the second half of her tumultuous seventh grade experience in her "super secret locked-up diary," but the addition of email now allows her to make those all-important immediate contacts (Front Cover).  One of the best aspects of this book, as in all the Venola Mae books, is that it resembles, in every way, the diary of a young girl: simple drawings are scattered throughout the text of the diary; notes are taped onto the pages of the diary; and the email appears exactly as though it were printed from the reader's own computer, complete with headings.    

Ware, Cheryl. "Cheryl Ware's Venola Mae 'Ramps Story." Hillchild: A Folklore Chapbook about, for, and by West Virginia Children. Ed. Dr. Judy Byers and Noel W. Tenney, West Virginia Folklife Center, Fairmont State College. Vol. 1, 2002. Four April entries from Venola's journal are illustrated by real WV school children. Venola's ideas about "state pride" are changed when she ends up having a good time at a ramps festival, in spite of many jokes about reactions to ramps in her family and school. Includes a recipe for rampy potatoes (made with the "amount of stinkiness you desire"). Also a letter by Cheryl Ware to readers and writers about writing the Venola books and how she makes them humorous.  See AppLit's Review of Hillchild.

Warmuth, Donna Akers. Plumb Full of History: A Story of Abingdon, Virginia. Illus. DeAnna Akers Gobble and Donna Akers Warmuth. Boone, NC: High Country, 2002. 64 pp.  "Abingdon's Plumb Alley Day festival forms the setting for this story of two children discovering much more than just the history of their grandmother's hometown. The engaging plot and lively characters of this book for middle grade readers will make the historical knowledge of Abingdon stick with hardly an awareness that the reader is learning anything" (Donna Akers Warmuth). 

Watts, Julia. Kindred Spirits. Midway, FL: Beanpole Books, 2008. 143 pp. "Miranda Jasper like all the women in her family, has the Sight - the ability to see into other people's thought. Miranda's one real friend, Abigail, is a ghost, until Adam moves to town. Miranda and Adam become friends, and soon Miranda introduces an amazed Adam to her friend Abigail. They unearth the story of a horrible crime committed in their town nearly seventy years before, a crime for which an innocent young man was punished" (Worldcat).

White, Ruth. Belle Prater's Boy. New York: Yearling, 1996. Gypsy, the narrator of the novel, and her cousin, Woodrow, share many things, the most important being the loss of a parent. Gypsy's father, a handsome man, commits suicide after an injury leaves him scarred for life. Woodrow's mother simply disappears. Like her mother, Love, Gypsy is considered the town beauty; especially remarked upon is her long blond hair. And like his mother, Belle, Woodrow is more plain. In addition, Woodrow is "cross-eyed." The two have been raised in completely different worlds, but when Woodrow is taken in by Belle and Love's parents, the children soon become fast friends. Facing reality is hard for both of them; fantasy seems more palpable. Woodrow is completely absorbed with a poem he and his mother often read together, a poem that he says explains where his mother is. Gypsy often thinks of being invisible, of being no more than her beautiful hair. Ironically, she is compared to her Aunt Belle on several occasions–with her aunt's excellent piano skills and her impulsiveness.  Accepting the truth and moving on are hard for the ten-year-old children. Many things happen to sadden the two. However, many good things also happen. Exciting adventures and Woodrow's humorous stories add to the emotionally gripping story of two young children learning to trust themselves. See an overview by Tina Hanlon in The Five Owls, No. 3, 2003, issue on The New South, in "Growing Up in the New South as Reflected in Children's Literature." See also the sequel The Search for Bell Prater below. And see more on these books in Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction. See also Ruth White autobiography in Scholastic web site.

White, Ruth. Buttermilk Hill. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004. Sequel to Weeping Willow, narrated by Tiny Lambert's daughter Piper Berry, at age 10, in a NC town in 1973. Piper, who is best friends with her aunt her own age, struggles with her parents' divorce and a new stepfamily, her mother's return to college, and her own efforts to express herself through writing poetry. Piper and Lindy also get caught up in an old town mystery of a missing child, which changes the life of their friend Bucky. See review at Allreaders.com.

White, Ruth. Little Audrey. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2008. "In 1948, eleven-year-old Audrey lives with her father, mother, and three younger sisters in Jewell Valley, a coal mining camp in Southwest Virginia, where her mother still mourns the death of a baby, her father goes on drinking binges on paydays, and Audrey tries to recover from the scarlet fever that has left her skinny and needing to wear glasses" (Worldcat). Classified as fiction, this compelling book is White's story of her own family, told through the voice of her oldest sister (who died in 1993). Ruth Carol is age six and the youngest child when Audrey is eleven. Audrey calls her sisters "the three pigs" because she mostly views them as greedy and messy. Her problems include hunger, grief for the baby sister she remembers, worry about her mother who has episodes of mental illness, and male bullies at school. Her friend Vergie, who is funny, clever, and good-hearted like Woodrow in Belle Prater's Boy, uses a brilliant ploy in school to stop a dangerous dare imposed by the bullies. Everyone, even the bullies, adores their pretty and kind teacher. Audrey and her mother are comforted by books (Audrey escapes into fantasies about Jane Eyre) and movies at the local theater, although Shirley Temple makes Audrey feel loathing because of her family's poverty. Audrey is teased with jokes in which the Little Audrey cartoon character absurdly laughs at trivial or ironic twists during horrifying events, but Vergie tells funny riddles and Audrey develops her own maturing perspective on suffering as her family deals with a terrible crisis at the end of the book. See 2008 review by Jane Stimmen at wsws.org, with thoughtful comments on the relationship between this family story and the historical background, and publisher's page with excerpts from book and reviews at macmillan.com.

White, Ruth. Memories of Summer. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000. Bittersweet story of a 13-year-old girl who moves with her widowed father and mentally ill sister from Glory Bottom, VA to Michigan in the 1950s.

White, Ruth. The Search for Belle Prater. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005. The story from Belle Prater's Boy (see above) resumes on New Year's Eve, when Woodrow's household receives a voiceless phone call at the stroke of midnight, which is his 13th birthday. After the call is traced to Bluefield, Woodrow and Gypsy convince their parents that they are old enough to visit Bluefield by themselves. On the bus trip they are joined by two new characters: Cassie, who has been blessed all her life with inexplicable gifts such as second sight, and Joseph, an African American boy looking for the father who had abandoned him many years before. Cassie and Woodrow learn about segregation while traveling with Joseph. Woodrow's trip to have his crossed eyes operated on in Baltimore and the search for his mother occupy most of the plot.

White, Ruth. Sweet Creek Holler. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1988. A coming-of-age novel in which Ginny Shortt tells of her family's struggles in the coal country of southwestern Virginia in the late 1940s, after her father is murdered.

White, Ruth. Tadpole. New York:  Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003. Set in the Kentucky hills in the 1950s. With three talented and well-known older sisters—Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia—Caroline, the ten-year-old narrator, is encouraged by the optimism of her abused cousin, Tadpole, to learn what her own special talent is.  

White, Ruth. Way Down Deep. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007. Story of a child who becomes a foundling as a toddler in 1944 and lives among an array of quirky characters in Way Down Deep, WV, an amusing and almost mythic small town, sixty miles from Yonder Mountain, VA. Ruby June lives with a kind foster mother who runs a boarding house, until Ruby is twelve and the mystery of her past starts to unfold. A number of characters in addition to Ruby struggle with the loss of their mothers and other family members. The book includes a map of the town and list of the cast of characters. Lee Smith observes that the story is "both fable and mystery...simply irresistible...with an entire community worthy of Dickens...funny, sweet, and filled with the heart's own truth" (back cover). A starred review in Booklist notes that "White dabbles in magic realism here." See Publishers Weekly 2007 interview with Ruth White.

White, Ruth. Weeping Willow. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992. Tiny Lambert is a high school girl in the 1950s with an unhappy mother and abusive stepfather. Friendships and participation in band make her life happier at school.

Wyatt, Melissa. Funny How Things Change. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. "Remy, a talented, seventeen-year-old auto mechanic, questions his decision to join his girlfriend when she starts college in Pennsylvania after a visiting artist helps him to realize what his family's home in a dying West Virginia mountain town means to him" (Worldcat).

Y

Yep, Laurence. Dream Soul. New York:  HarperCollins Juvenile Books, 2000. The sequel to Star Fisher, the story of the Chinese American Lee family in Clarksburg, West Virginia, Dream Soul focuses on the events surrounding the Christmas season of 1927.  Joan, Emily, and Bobby want nothing more than to celebrate Christmas with their landlord neighbor, Miss Lucy.  Their parents concede, only if they behave perfectly until the time of Christmas, which is not a traditional celebration for the Chinese.  Though the children try hard not to disappoint their parents, they do embarrass their father, so the holiday is cancelled.  When the children's father becomes seriously ill, Joan remembers a story her father has told her and tries to bring her father's "dream soul" back to him. See more on this book in Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Yep, Laurence. The Star Fisher. New York: Puffin, 1991. A Chinese family brings their traditions with them when they move from Ohio to Clarksburg, WV in the 1920s. See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature and Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Youmans, Marly. Ingledove. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2005. "Several years after Fontana dam flooded the town where they were born, Ingledove and her brother Lang go wandering in the southern Appalachians, where they encounter their mother's peculiar people, the Adantans, and an evil being who charms Lang." Involves Cherokee legends and a magical place in the Great Smoky Mountains. Kate Coombs discusses this "dark...moody" novel in her Book Aunt blog, 16 Jan. 2009, where she identifies a coming trend she calls "rural fantasy" or "tall tale fantasy." She refers to "an unusual mix of Celtic and Cherokee magic in this book."

Short Stories and Collections

Note: Stories based on folklore are listed in Appalachian Folktale Collections.

Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin, and  Joseph Eugene Dash. Stories from an Indian Cave: The Cherokee Cave Builders. Chicago: A. Whitman, 1939. 217 pp.

Ballard, Sandra L., and Patricia L. Hudson, eds. Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia . Lexington : Kentucky UP, 2003. The first comprehensive Appalachian anthology of writing by women. Contains selections of poetry and prose by 105 writers, including Marilou Awiakta, Jo Carson, Rebecca Caudill, Nikki Giovanni, Virginia Hamilton (excerpt from M. C. Higgins, the Great), Gloria Houston (from My Great Aunt Arizona), Mother Jones, May Justus ("Weather Rhymes"), George Ella Lyon, MariJo Moore ("Story is a Woman" is a poem in the shape of a woman), Cynthia Rylant (from Missing May), Anne Shelby ("Spellcheck" is a poem on how the spellcheck tries to change dialect words to other words). Short biography and recommended sources are given for each author. Includes a chronology of works (1826-2003) and a bibliography of other works by women writing in Appalachian in all genres. Table of Contents and review excerpts at UP of KY web site. 

Clark, Billy C. By Way of the Forked Stick. TN: Tennessee UP, 2000. 149 pp. Four fictional stories drawn from the author's childhood experiences of the 1930s.

Clark, Billy C. Sourwood Tales. Illus. Harold Eldridge. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2001. 256 pp. Collection of eighteen short stories of life in the Big Sandy region of Eastern Kentucky during the Great Depression.

Davis, Donald. “Don’t Kill Santa!” Christmas Stories. Atlanta, GA: August House, 2006. 112 pp. See Appalachian Christmas Picture Books: Collections for Children for summary.

Faine, Edward Allan. Little Ned Stories: A Chapter Picture Book for Kids. Illus. Joan C. Waites. IM Press, 1999. Realistic adventure stories of Little Ned, "six going on seven."  Set in West Virginia in the 1950s, the titles include "No Soap," "The Boy Who Hated Halloween," and "The Ocean Vacation."

Gibbons, Faye. Hook Moon Night: Spooky Tales from the Georgia Mountains. Illus. Ronald Himler. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1997. "A collection of eight hair-raising yarns told by mountain people in Georgia while sitting on their front porch many miles from the nearest electric lights and indoor plumbing."

Gifford, James, M., Owen B. Nance, and Patricia A. Hall, eds. Appalachian Christmas Stories. Illus. Jim Marsh. Ashland, KY:  The Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1997. See Appalachian Christmas Picture Books: Collections for Children for summary.

Justus, May. See separate bibliography in AppLit.

Mushko, Becky. Where There's A Will. West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2005. With Study Guides by Kay McGrath (based on 6th-grade Virginia Standards of Learning). Third-grade lesson plans by Charlotte Webb. A collection of eight stories, all set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia from the 1770s to the 1950s. "All of the stories in Where There's a Will are about young people who are empowered in some way and who learn valuable lessons about life" (from author's Introduction). An earlier version of "Spelldown" appears in AppLit at this link. "Meg Reddingoode: A Blue Ridge 'Little Red Riding Hood" is a realistic story set in Bedford County during the Revolutionary War, in which Meg and Grandma are sharp enough to stand up to a Tory intruder named Jeremiah Wolfe. "Insult to Injury" and "You Ain't Buck-Nekkid and You Got Enough to Eat" also appeared in Mushko's 2003 collection The Girl Who Chased Mules and Other Stories. See also 2005 article in Smith Mountain Eagle at this link.

Now and Then, vol. 4.1 (Spring 1987). Ed. Pauline Cheek. Johnson City, TN: Center for Appalachian Studies and Services, East Tennessee State Univ. Special issue on Appalachian childhood. Stories are "Thief in the Night" by Jan Barnet, "The Flood" by Drema S. Redd, and "Soul Train Ride" by Judy Odom. Also essays, reviews, interviews, memories, photos, and poems. Full text available in ERIC, no. ED310896.

Rylant, Cynthia. Children of Christmas: Stories for the Season. Illus. S. D. Schindler. New York: Orchard Books, 1993. See Appalachian Christmas Picture Books: Collections for Children for summary.

Stuart, Jesse. "Split Cherry Tree." In Whole Pieces. Ed. Alice Quinn. New York: Scholastic Inc, 1990.

Stuart, Jesse. Seven by Jesse. Terre Haute: Indiana Council of Teachers of English, 1970. Seven short stories: "Neighbors in the Night," "The Reason," "Night of Love," "He Saw the Sun this Time," "More Fun than a Circus," "The Usurper of Beauty Ridge," "The Biscuit Maker."

This Page Created: 9/08/2002   |   Links Checked: 03/22/2004   |   Last Update: 8/12/10

top of page

Index of AppLit Pages by Genre: Fiction for Children and Young Adults
Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature
Appalachian Christmas Books for Children and Young Adults
Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction
 

home