Children’s Librarian Judy Zimmer recommends Rising Above Shepherdsville by Ann Schoenbohm.
This novel drew me in with the opening paragraph:
“There I was, Mama, standing in the tall grass right next to the Redeemer Baptist Church, the day after the Fourth of July, when I spied what I would have sworn on a heap of Bibles was an angel rising straight up to heaven. Enormous white wings spread and soared above me in a sunset so pink and gold, it promised miracles-even here in Shepherdsville, Ohio- a place badly in need of divine intervention.”
In 1977, twelve-year-old Dulcie Dixon is dumped at her aunt’s house by her stepfather after the untimely death of her Mama.
She arrives in Ohio with no voice, a spelling bee trophy, and her mother’s ashes.
This is a novel that has stuck with me, one that I would even read again. The last person I recommended it to remarked that it had brought her to tears.
I recommend it for upper middle school kids and adults alike.
