Young Adult Historical Fiction

Twelve-year-old Kit Haverard is the only daughter of an absent-minded, scholarly Quaker father. Along with three older brothers who are currently away at school, dreamy, untidy Kit has been raised by their young, energetic cousin Laura. Ever since the death of Professor Haverard’s wife, Laura has given herself to maintaining an ordered life for her uncle, conscientiously caring for his children, but also jealously “protecting” him from the day-to-day affairs of the household.

Ten-year-old Benny found the drunken cart driver who caused his father's death, but he's got bigger mysteries to solve. A long, sharp knife, a bag of disguises and a savage black stallion don't reassure Benny about his traveling companion to frontier Missouri. Still, Benny can’t shake the Scripture’s promise that God “will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

It is January 29, 1954. I am born in the heart of Mississippi in a place called Kosciusko, (KAW-zee-ESS-koh). My mother is a housemaid who broke up with my father. She raises me on her own. My name is Orpah (OR-pah) Gail Winfrey but everyone pronounces it “Oprah (OH-prah). Before I am three years old, my grandmother teaches me to read. She takes me to the local church, where I am nicknamed "The Preacher" because I can recite Bible verses from memory.

Journey with a horseback librarian into the hidden crevices of Kentucky mountains. Feel her pain as she struggles not only to barely make ends meet, but as she also attempts to connect the pieces of her own life while her mom continues to make selfish decisions. Lena Davis is the daughter her mom never wanted. But she survived. Through stories. Because books didn’t judge. Books weren’t angry she was alive. Books never expected her to be anything but who she was.