Keepin' It Together, set in a time before the flick-a-switch generation, relates the story of Ada Joyce and her family, who by sheer will to survive, love, grow, and succeed, overcome monumental tasks and difficulties to paint a true picture for the reader of what life was like during the trying times of pre-electric, pre-plumbing, and the Depression and Dirtstorms of the 1930's.

The story, a work of fiction, is based loosely on events in the author’s life as a child in the Oklahoma Panhandle Dust Bowl. The characters, mother, Emma, and girls, Ada Joyce, 13, and Betty Ruth, 7, show the courage, self-reliance, and sacrifice of those who survived the worst natural disaster period of the century in which they lived.

This novel is unique in that it features the children who grew up in that time and the part they played in helping the family do and make-do when times were especially hard on a farm all-but-destroyed by wind and dirt.

Father, Matthew, is a strong, loving character who has no choice but to leave his family to fend for themselves while he moves away to find work so that he can feed his family beyond what could be raised on their farm.

Keepin’ It Together is especially valuable for today’s young adults to read so they can appreciate the history of their grandparents and their neighbors.