Category: Home Fries

Ludie lived during a different time, in a place called West Virginia, in a region known as Appalachia. A time when girls married in their teens, when families were dependant on what could be mined from the ground, one of the only forms of entertainment was gossiping with the neighbor over the back fence, and a woman was proud to be “famous for her biscuits.” Ludie sent most of her six children to college, even though she never went herself, believed that “doting on” any animal that didn’t provide a service was “a certain pass given to those of a certain class,” and buried a beloved husband who died from the coal dust he inhaled his whole life. Cynthia Rylant’s free verse character study of a person and a way of life that is seldom explored in teen literature is a warm, poignant homage to days gone by. Draw up a chair and sit with Ludie awhile. Listen to her stories. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

D.J.’s good at two things: milking cows and playing football. She’s been working on her family’s Wisconsin dairy farm since she could walk, and learned all the ins and outs of playing ball from her two older brothers, both school champions. So when a close family friend (the coach of her school’s rival team) asks her to help his quarterback train, D.J. reluctantly agrees, thinking no one will ever find out. How was she supposed to know that a) she’d end up falling for said hunky quarterback and b) she’d also end up loving the game so much she goes out for her own team, makes it, and plays the first game of the season against her crush?! This endearing first novel is sweet, funny and the polar opposite of Gossip Girls. If you prefer a tall glass of milk to a no-foam latte and don’t mind a little football in your chick lit., then Dairy Queen is the perfect read for you!

India Opal Buloni (sounds like the lunch meat) isn’t sure about her new hometown of Naomi, Florida. She hasn’t made any friends yet, because of the people her age in town, Amanda Wilkenson is “pinch-faced” and the Dewberry brothers are mean and due to their summer crew cuts, a pair of “bald headed babies” besides. But then she meets the best friend a girl could have–a big old dog she christens Winn-Dixie, since she found him smack in he middle of the produce section of the Winn-Dixie market. Through his tail-wagging antics, Winn-Dixie introduces India to a whole passel of people–Miss Franny Block, the venerable story-telling librarian of the Herman W. Block Memorial Library, Otis the guitar-playing pet store clerk, and Sweetie Pie Thomas, a knuckle-sucking five year old who loves Winn-Dixie almost as much as India. And maybe, just maybe, Winn-Dixie can help India make friends with that pinch-faced Amanda Wilkenson and those bald-headed Deweberry brothers, too. Homey and comforting, Because of Winn-Dixie goes down like hot chocolate on a cold December afternoon.

Everybody in Coal Station, Virginia thinks Woodrow Prater is a little kooky, including his cousin Gypsy. See, one night Woodrow’s mama Belle just up and disappeared and no one has seen hide nor hair of her since. Now, Woodrow is living next door to Gypsy with their grandparents and Gypsy can’t wait to find out if Woodrow knows how or why Belle Prater evaporated. Unfortunately, Gypsy doesn’t know how to go about asking very tactfully, and Woodrow is being pretty close-mouthed about the whole affair. There’ll be a whole lotta hurt feelings and broken hearts before the mystery of Belle Prater is finally solved. A fine, folky read that was chosen as a Newbery Honor book in 1996.

Most of us have been plum embarrassed by our parents at least once in our lives–usually between the ages of 12 and 17. But Tiger Ann Parker suffers from flaming cheeks more often than most teenagers because her parents are both a little on the “slow” side. The entire town of Saitter, Louisiana has seen Tiger’s mom start bawling right in the middle of the school gym when she thought she was lost, and everybody knows that her daddy can’t read. Sometimes Tiger Ann can’t wait to get away from both of them. But when the chance to escape presents itself, Tiger Ann discovers that turning her back on her parent’s simple love is a lot harder than she thought. This novel has more melodrama than a Willie Nelson song and is just as satisfying.

Nissa Bergen knows that her free-spirited mother has left forever when she finds all the purple rose blossoms cut from the bushes. Nissa has always known that the small town of Harper, Louisiana was too small for her butterfly-chasin’, hibiscus-tea-drinkin’ mama but she hoped against hope that her mother would be able to rise above the town’s small minded-ness and stay for Nissa’s sake. But the day comes that Heirah Bergen skips town for good, taking the roses and leaving Nissa to deal with the vicious gossip and her father’s new girlfriend, Miss Lara Ross, the town spinster. Nissa comes to terms with a lot that year after her mother leaves, finally finding comfort with the fact that she will always be her mother’s daughter no matter where her mother is. As old fashioned and sweet as a stick of hoarhound candy.

Shelby has been dragged around the country so many times by her single mom that she’s lost count of all the places they’ve lived. Now her art-lovin’ mama has gotten it in her had that she wants to visit her roots and get closer to Georgia O’Keefe country, so she’s announced to Shelby that they’re moving to Texas. But Shelby is sick of moving and and is just about to absolutely refuse to move more than her little finger when she starts to find some clues about her absentee father’s identity. Her mom won’t hardly talk about him, but once Shelby finds some evidence of his existence, mostly creepy old photos with his face cut out, she smells a story and figures it might be worth it to keep tagging along with her mom until she discovers the truth. Only, once Shelby knows the whole story, it may sever the fragile bond between her and her mother forever. a tangy, Texas-twangy read.

Joey and his sister Mary Alice are forced to spend each summer of the years 1929-1935 in an Illinois hick town with their grandma. As you can imagine, they don’t find the prospect too appealing. In fact, since they are worldly Chicagoans, they are sure they will be bored out of their skulls. But nothing could be farther from the truth. At Grandma’s they end up being in the same room as a rising corpse, witness the town sheriff inebriated and dancing around in his underwear, and take a coveted airplane ride. And those are only a few of the crazy situations that Grandma gets them into. This book would be a great read-aloud to share with your younger brother or sister.

Meg’s thirteenth summer is a doozy. Not only does she share her first kiss with until-that-summer-just-a-friend Fred Massey, but she also tackles more serious issues like dealing with her single mom’s loser boyfriend and the unexpected death of her neighbor’s child. This is a super-short, summery Southern read, best enjoyed with a tall glass of mint ice tea.

Everyone in Ivy Breedlove’s family is a lawyer. Ivy doesn’t want to be a lawyer, she wants to be a genealogist (family historian to those of you who haven’t boned up on those SAT vocab words yet) This does not sit well with the other Breedloves. But Ivy doesn’t care since she has recently discovered another Breedlove who bucked the family profession and instead became a bird-loving mountain hermit. Ivy decides to find her Aunt Jo and ask her how she managed to escape the Breedlove career path. However, her simple journey to her aunt’s secluded home turns into a snowbound wilderness adventure in which Ivy has to turn to a crazy character named Mountain Mama for help. There’s also a little romance sprinkled in when Ivy hooks up with hunky wilderness ranger-in-training. You may not learn how to survive in the woods but you will laugh your snowshoes off at this funny, funny book about family expectations.