My Louisiana Sky

by Kimberly Willis Holt

Overview

“Brings fresh perspective to the guilt and anger and caring that surround the mentally disabled. All the characters . . . are drawn with warmth but no patronizing reverence.” —Booklist, Starred Review

Set in the South in the late 1950s, this coming-of-age novel about the importance of family and home explores a twelve-year-old girl's struggle with grief, navigating life with her developmentally disabled parents, and the changing world around her.

Tiger Ann Parker wants nothing more than to get out of the rural town of Saitter, Louisiana—far away from her developmentally disabled mother and father, who can't read an electric bill, and her classmates who taunt her. So when Aunt Dorie Kay asks Tiger to spend the summer with her in Baton Rouge, Tiger can't wait to go. But before she leaves, the sudden revelation of a dark family secret prompts Tiger to make a decision that will ultimately change her life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312660956
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	02/15/2011
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	770L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Twenty three years ago Kimberly Willis Holt stopped talking about wanting to be a writer and started to pursue her dream. Because of her family's Louisiana roots she considers herself a southerner, but her father's military career took her to places beyond the South, including Paris and Guam.

She's the author of more than fifteen books for a wide range of ages, many of which have won awards and honors. Her third novel, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. She writes and gardens in Texas.

Editorial Reviews

This lyrical first novel brings fresh perspective to the guilt and anger and caring that surround the mentally disabled. All the characters . . . are drawn with warmth but no patronizing reverence.” —Booklist, Starred Review

“So honest is Holt's portrayal of Tiger, Momma, Daddy, Granny, and the rest that one wonders if she wrote their story while sitting in a rocker on a Saitter front porch, under the vast promises of a Louisiana Sky.” —The Horn Book, Starred Review

“An unusually auspicious debut.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

From the Publisher

In her first YA novel, Holt gives a fresh theme sensitive and deliberate treatment: The bright child of "slow" parents comes to terms with her family's place in the community. Tiger Ann Parker is smart; she's gotten straight A's and won the spelling bee five years in a row. People in her rural 1950s Louisiana community can't figure out where she got her brains, because everyone knows that her parents, are mentally challenged. Her mother has the capabilities of a six-year-old, while her father, a good steady worker at the nursery down the road, can't manage writing or simple math. Tiger loves her parents, but as she enters middle school she becomes increasingly aware that she's socially ostracized by her classmates; her affection for her family becomes mixed with shame and anger at their differences. When Tiger's loving grandmother, who has always run the household, has a fatal heart attack, Tiger is invited to live with her glamorous Aunt Doreen in Baton Rouge. Tempted to move away and reinvent herself, Tiger ultimately comes to appreciate her parents' strengths and her own as well. Tiger, with her warring feelings, is a believable and likable narrator, and while the offerings of big-city living are too patly rejected, a well-developed setting and fully-realized characters make this an unusually strong coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews