Dancing in Cadillac Light

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Daily strolls through the cemetery, snipe hunts, spying and riding fancy driving lessons are just a few of the adventures that Jaynell Lambert has in Dancing in Cadillac Light by Kimberly Willis Holt. This is a sweet book that begins in the summer of 1968. Jaynell is excited about men walking on the moon, but the big news closer to home is the anticipation of paved roads in front of her house. This is a sign of status, indicating that theirs was improving, so she thought.

Another big event was grandpap moving in. Jaynell loves spending time with her grandpap, mostly because he gives her driving lessons. However, there are more meaningful lessons that Jaynell is learning from her grandpap, that she isn't aware of. She doesn't realize the valuable lessons until after he's gone. Jaynell learns of her family secrets and remembers the example set by grandpap that shape her into the kind of person her family would be proud of.

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negatives and positives

It is 1968, just before Neil Armstrong's historic walk on the moon, and eleven-year-old Jaynell Lambert lives in the little village of Moon, TX, with her father Rollins, mother Arlene, and ten-year-old sister Racine. Her mother's sister, Aunt Loveda Thigpen, and her family, Uncle Floyd and cousins Sweet Adeline and Little Floyd, live in nearby Marshall, TX. Jaynell's Grandpap, Maurice Boudreaux, also lives in Moon. A little while before the book opens, Grandma had died. Grandpap started moping and mumbling around, so Aunt Loveda and Uncle Floyd took him home to live with them until he started planting sugarcane near Loveda's roses, so the Lamberts took him into their home, and Jaynell had to move into a room with Racine.
A lot of people think that old Maurice is going crazy. He had been a mailman, and now he wanders around the neighborhood, taking folks' mail into their house from their mailboxes and visiting with them. While out on Caddo Lake in his boat with Jaynell, he runs some duck hunters off, although admittedly it was not yet duck season. He goes and buys a bright green Cadillac and even lets Jaynell drive it in the field. The only other crazy person whom Jaynell knows is Betty Jean Kizer who, after her son Clyde T. was killed while swimming in the creek, runs around with wild hair and dances in the moonlight. Then, Grandpap turns his old house over to the Pickenses, a family which many in town consider "white trash." Uncle Floyd is even talking about going to the sheriff for an eviction notice. What will Jaynell learn about her grandfather that will change her attitude towards him, her own family, and even the Pickenses?
The characters of Kimberly Willis Holt's books, which include My Louisiana Sky, Mister and Me, and When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, have been called quirky. I would certainly agree that this is true for Dancing in Cadillac Light as well. It is an interesting story that will give today's children some insight into the lives of poorer people in rural Texas during the 1960s. I have a little trouble considering a time through which I lived (I was fourteen in 1968, just three years older than Jaynell) as a subject for "historical fiction," but then it is true nonetheless! Besides some common euphemisms, there is one instance of the "d" word by Jaynell's father, and the author seems somewhat fixated on using childish slang terms for urine and the rear end, probably to appeal to juvenile minds. Jaynell is beginning to develop and notices "curves" and "bumps." The younger boyfriend of an older lady in town is called a gigolo. There is a little bit of dishonesty portrayed in the book when Aunt Loveda bids up customers at Uncle Floyd's auction, but that is portrayed in somewhat of a negative light. On the positive side, respect by children for adults is emphasized, and in spite of their difficulties this is a family which hangs together. The conclusion is satisfying.

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AWSOME

This book is just so fun to read~!~!~!~!

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Good Book

I think this book had a very good plot and it was a good read, i could not put it down. I really recomend this book to any reader out there looking for a good book to read.

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okay

this book is okay... but not the best ive read... its needs a lil more excitment in it!!

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OK

I think this book is really great. But it could use with a bit more excitement.

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DANCING IN CADILLAC LIGHT

hey yall- this book is so awesome! a friend gave it to me on my birthday one year. it is one of the best books i have ever read! everyone should definitley read it

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GREAT BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS BOOK WAS WONDERFUL!!! I GAVE IT 2 THUMBS UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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