The Ballad of Jessie Pearl & A Giveaway!

The only thing that I didn't like about Shannon Hitchcock's debut novel, The Ballad of Jessie Pearl, (Namelos, 2012) is that it ended. The fact that I wanted to know what happened to Jessie, proves that this well-written historical fiction is a must-read for young adult girls, as well as their mothers and grandmothers. 

The time is 1922 and the place is rural North Carolina; a time when young girls are fortunate to graduate from eighth grade and not many leave home to pursue higher education. It's also a time when young men like Jessie's beau, J.T., leave sharecropping on a tobacco farm to earn more money at the Reynolds factory in Winston. 

When Jessie's sister Carrie is diagnosed with tuberculosis soon after giving birth to her first son, Ky, Jessie has no choice but to drop out of school to take care of the house, Carrie, and Ky. Carrie dies and Jessie is caught between her desire to help her family and her dream of becoming a teacher. Throw her powerful feelings for J.T. into the mix, and you have a wonderful stew of conflict portrayed in this scene when J.T. announces his decision to leave:

"You're leaving me?" I ask.

"It's not like that," J.T. Says. "I'm goin' so I can save money. So that I can take care of you someday."

I stomp my foot in the dirt. "Let me tell you how it really is. You're going because you don't want to be a sharecropper like your pa. I didn't enter into your decision. And don't pretend like I did."

J.T. nods. "You're partly right. I don't want to be a sharecropper, but I still want to marry you someday. I shouldn't have to choose."

I give him a sad smile. "You already did. I can't leave here. I promised Carrie I'd take care of her son."

.....

J.T.'s hands ball into fists. "Why do you have to make me feel so guilty? If you had the chance to leave for teacher's college, you'd take it."

Ky whispers and I jostle him on my hip. "Would I? I just don't know anymore. The feelings I have for you tie my heart in knots." (p. 76-77)

The Ballad of Jesse Pearl is a coming of age book similar to another excellent young adult novel, A Northern Light. I appreciate how both writers portray realistic characters and conflicts for the time period in which the girls lived.

Poetic images fill the pages of a story taken from Shannon's own family history. 

Anna and Crawley Hennings,
Shannon Hitchcock's great aunts.
Crawley's life, sickness and death, was the model for Jessie Pearl.

Watch this book trailer, created by Wendy Hostetter Davis, and you will see a glimpse of this beautiful story: 

I am giving away a copy of the ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) along with a copy of the annotated discussion and activity guide. You don't have to be a teacher to win, but you might consider passing along Jessie Pearl to your favorite classroom after you read it. The giveaway will end on Monday morning, February 4th.  To enter please:

• Share this contest on your social media of your choice and leave me a comment with your email address. 

                  OR,

• Sign up to follow my blog and then leave me a comment with your email address. 

Holiday Giveaway #3- Hattie Big Sky on CD

Congratulations to Rosi Holinbeck, the newest follower of my blog and the winner of an autographed copy of Hattie Big Sky. For those of you who didn't win the book, here is your chance to win the book on CD. 

As promised, Kirby shares her own personal connection to Hattie's story: 

My beloved maternal grandmother was suffering from Alzheimer's and I was helping to take care of her. My heart was breaking over losing her, and at the same time, I was in a writing funk because I'd gone seven years without an acceptance letter. I was pretty sure I was supposed to quit writing. One day, I was with my grandma and she said, "The only time Mom was afraid was in the winter when the wild horses stampeded." Now, we live in the city so wild horses aren't generally something we have to worry about! 

Though I tried to get more information from Grandma, she didn't even remember saying those words to me. They stuck with me, however, and I asked my aunt if she had an idea if they meant anything. She recalled that my great-grandmother, Hattie Inez Brooks Wright,  (technically, my step-great-grandmother) had homesteaded as a young woman. And perhaps in Montana. I was so fascinated by that prospect, I began to poke around to find out if that was a true story. 

The real Hattie with her
niece and nephew

Though I wasn't able to find out much about her time on the prairie, I did learn that my great-grandmother did homestead, all by herself, in eastern Montana. I wanted to know more about what that experience might have been like for her, so I began reading homesteading stories/journals/diaries. That led to hours in newspaper archives, trips to Montana and a stack of books on Montana history! Before I knew it, four years had flown by, and I had a novel on my hands.

Lois Thomas Wright Brown, Kirby's maternal grandmother and model for the main character in Hattie Big Sky

Thank you, Kirby, for sharing this touching story!

And now that you've heard this "story behind the story", here is your chance to win Hattie Big Sky on CD. And yes, Kirby will find a way to autograph the CD for you or for someone you love.

Here are the rules: 

• If you already follow this blog, please share this contest via social media then post a comment on my blog or tag me on Facebook.
• If you aren’t a follower, sign up, and then leave a comment (see #1).
• If you have never entered one of my contests, PLEASE include your email address so I can contact you if you win. No contact information--you can't win!
• HURRY! Contest ends TOMORROW NIGHT. Winner will be picked December 15th. 

Do Hattie and Charlie ever get together? You'll have to read Kirby's next book, Hattie Ever After  due out in February, 2013 to find out. My mother and I can't wait! 

**************

Next Holiday giveaway is Kami Kinard's book, Boy Project!

Holiday Giveaway #2: Hattie Big Sky

It is a rare book that engages middle grade, young adult, and adult readers. Hattie Big Sky, a 2007 Newbery Honor winner by Kirby Larson, is such a book. 

While I listened to it on CD, my 88-year-old mother enjoyed reading it. This blog will include both our reactions to this hard-to-put-down book.

Set in early-20th century Montana, the story focuses on 16-year-old Hattie who just inherited her uncle's 320-acre claim.  Since I listened with my writer's hat on, this is what I appreciated:

• I loved how the book opened just as Hattie's life changes. The reader sees how Hattie has been orphaned and shifted from one relative to another. The inciting event happens quickly: the fateful letter declaring her inheritance arrives. 
• Larson uses beautiful language to describe the Montana landscape as well as Hattie's tumultuous feelings. 
• Hattie's external and internal goals are clearly portrayed. She has to clear 40 acres and set 480 posts in 10 months or lose the claim. Internally, she longs for a home-- for a place where she will no longer be "Hattie Here and There."
• Each obstacle to Hattie's success produces tension in the story. A shifty single man who desires her and her land, hail, her own exhaustion, her uncle's unpaid bills--all of these work to have the reader rooting for Hattie.
• Larson weaves in several interesting sub-plots: World War I, Hattie's growing affection for her hometown friend serving in the war, her love for reading and writing, and the anti-German sentiment in America.

While I admired Larson's wordsmith abilities, my mother was very happy "just" to love the story. She loved Hattie's courage and gutsiness and Mr. Whiskers (Hattie's cat.) "When I was reading it I could imagine I was in Montana. I could picture everything," she said. 

My mother immigrated to the United States in 1936 from Germany and never reads anything about WWII. I was wondering if the references to the Huns or the anti-German hatred which impacted Hattie would bother her. When I asked her she replied simply, "That was before my time."

Kirby is donating an autographed copy to one fortunate winner. Mothers, grandmothers, aunts, teachers...leave me a comment and you might win! Just make sure you read the book before you give it away (or give it with a promise that you'll get to read it too!)

Here are the giveaway rules: 

• If you already follow this blog, please share this contest via social media then post a comment telling me what you did.
• If you aren’t a follower, sign up, and then leave a comment.
• If you have never entered one of my contests, PLEASE include your email address so I can contact you if you win. No contact information--you can't win!

CONTEST ENDS THE EVENING OF WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 12TH!

Next blog up: Kirby shares the personal back story that led her to  writing this book. And you'll have the chance to win Hattie Big Sky on CD!