"It is a golden day in May 1948. The air fairly sparkles with sunshine. The sky is hard and glassy like a marble, and the new green of the hills is emerald. I am eleven years old, but in November I will be twelve, which is nearabout grown up. I am in the sixth grade, and I am walking home with Virgil. He is the new boy, just moved here from Kentucky."
So begins Audrey's story. She is the oldest sister of four sisters in a dirt poor mining family, living in a coal camp in the hills of Virginia. Ruth White lived this life and through its telling, in her sister Audrey’s voice, her readers cannot help but be drawn into the harsh times the family has already encountered. In western Virginia life is tough and seeing it through Audrey’s damaged eyes makes it even more unsettling. Their mother is mourning the loss of a long-dead baby, their father finds solace in the bottle, and the children are just trying to make do until a better life is theirs. At once innocent and experienced Audrey draws the reader into the hunger, the fear and the tenderness that is family life for the Whites. There are real people here and they inhabit a real world…gritty and harsh. Ruth White's writing is always intense in its candor, filled with strong, believable characters who find a place in our hearts and don't let go.
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