Description
“What else would you want for?” Daddy says. “If it’s essential have anything on the planet, what would you want for?”
I shrug. “Oh, I have no idea. Maybe . . .”
“Maybe what?”
“For us to live better than we do.”
He does not say anything.
In 1948, award-winning creator Ruth White lived in Jewell Valley, a coal camp nestled between the hills of southwestern Virginia, with her mother, still mourning for a baby who died four years earlier; her father, who spent the weekends and most of his pay out drinking; and her three older sisters, Audrey, Yvonne, and Eleanor. Told in Audrey’s voice, this is how the creator imagines Audrey’s experiences right through a time of great trauma for the White circle of relatives – and what happened before they were in a position to live a better life.
This snapshot of life in a coal camp, complete with on a regular basis heartaches and joys – in addition to stories, songs, and jokes – is Ruth White’s most personal work to date.
Little Audrey is a 2009 Bank Street – Best Children’s Book of the Year.