Each October western North Carolina experiences a metamorphosis akin to a harvest-colored quilt being tossed over its ancient mountains. Today we bring you books set in the part of North Carolina that teems with mountain laurel, stone outcroppings and gurgling creeks.
BLACK ANGELS. By Linda Beatrice Brown. Penguin. Ages 12 and up. 260 pages. $16.99.
This is one of the best Civil War historical-fiction reads we've encountered, and it's from a local (Greensboro) writer to boot. Three children brave their way through the wilds of North Carolina. Luke and Daylily are escaped slaves, and Caswell is the lost son of a plantation owner. They forge a bond and survive some of the darkest days in our country's history.
Black Angels provides a transport back in time and a journey through North Carolina no child should have to endure. They encounter evil but also love when they meet an Indian woman named Betty. Betty saves the children while risking her life, which is surrounded by intrigue and mystery.
ROAD TO TATER HILL. By Edith M. Hemingway. Random House. Ages 9-12. 224 pages. $16.99.
CAROLINA HARMONY. By Marilyn Taylor McDowell. Random House. Ages 9-12. 336 pages. $16.99.
These two books are eerily similar. Set in the North Carolina mountains in 1963 and 1964, both have red-headed 11-year-old girls as main characters. The girls' grandparents play vital roles in their lives after there is a death in the family. Both mention Grandfather Mountain in their settings.
There are, however, some key differences. Annie in Road to Tater Hill lives in the mountains only during the summer, when she stays with her grandparents. Carolina in Carolina Harmony lives with her grandmother after both parents and her little brother die in a car accident on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Annie's sister was born prematurely and died the next day. After Carolina's grandmother has an emergency hospital stay, she runs away from a custody battle. Annie stays with her torn family, waiting for her father to return from war.
Both books are powerful stories about families that have been ripped apart. They help you to realize how important family can be, and how one moment can change a life forever. Plus, they invoke the lovely North Carolina mountains as important elements.
For more North Carolina mountain reads, pick up Kerry Madden's series: GENTLE'S HOLLER, LOUISIANA'S SONG and JESSIE'S MOUNTAIN. Set in 1963 in Maggie Valley, these books (Viking, Ages 10 and up, about 300 pages each) are a wholesome series about a mountain family down on its luck but rich with love.
THAT BOOK WOMAN. By Heather Henson. Simon & Schuster. Ages 4-9. $16.99.
No, these aren't our Appalachian Mountains in the story, but we had to share this gem. A rollicking, rhyming tale brings the story of the Pack Horse Librarians to life. These librarians took their books to Kentucky's Appalachian Mountains to what was often an illiterate culture. Part of the New Deal, this program gave mountain people a richer life.
Cal, the boy in this book, sees no need for any woman to be bringing him books. "I was not born/ to sit so stoney-still/ a-staring at some chicken scratch," Cal says when he hears the "clippitty-clop" of the librarian coming up the mountain. Cal learns to love the chicken scratch and the world that words open to him.
Monica Young and Hannah McRae Young can be reached at cyoung9@triadrr.com. View book reviews at the Journal in Education site at www.jie.journalnow.com.
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