My Louisiana Sky
Product Type: Book
Product Price: $6.99
Manufacturer: Yearling
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Description
Tiger Ann Parker is smart in school and good at baseball, but she's forever teased about her family by the girls in class. Tiger Ann knows her folks are different from others in their small town of Saitter, Louisiana. They are mentally slow, and Tiger Ann keeps her pain and embarrassment hidden as long as her strong and smart Granny runs the household. Then Granny dies suddenly and Aunt Dorie Kay arrives, offering Tiger Ann a way out. Now Tiger Ann must make the most important decision of her life.
Reviews
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-04-20
Summary: "well worth the price I paid, thanks!"
The cover was worn--but I expected this since I only paid a dollar for it. It was in wonderful condition and very well worth it. Thank you.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-02-07
Summary: "An authentic Louisiana story"
"My Louisiana Sky" spoke to me, a native Louisianian. Its characters are real, the dialog voices are accurate, the setting is the way it was (and probably still is) in the rolling hills of Central Louisiana. The time is 1957. Hurricane Audrey makes a dynamic appearance, causing a proper resolution of the story.
(What a wild coincidence! My grandparents lived in a little country town like this one in Central Louisiana. My siblings and I were staying for a week exactly when Audrey hit. I remember it well!)
Author Kimberly Willis Holt takes the reader into a home consisting of Momma and Daddy, Granny and Tiger Ann Parker, a 12-year-old headed into seventh grade come fall. Granny is caretaker and head of the house because she is the only adult who can handle the duties. Both Momma and Daddy are "slow." Daddy is one of the best workers in one of the two big employers in town, a plant nursery.
Summer is slow-paced and allows for a day-long episode of picking purple-hull peas (there's nothing like them), making chicken and dumplings from scratch, spreading out quilts on the church grounds for a picnic. People bring food: fried chicken, potato salad, butter beans, buttermilk pies, fig cakes, and the like. Tiger and her neighbor and best friend Jesse Wade play ball, pick blackberries, and swim in the creek and have since they were littl'uns (now there's a good Louisiana word). But Jesse Wade ruins their friendship by giving Tiger her first kiss. Tiger's daddy works for Jesse's daddy.
When Granny dies, Tiger's sophisticated aunt from Baton Rouge, Dorie Kay, is the one who takes care of the funeral and arranges a housekeeper/cook for the couple and Tiger. She even invites Tiger to come live with her in the fall.
The events of the summer, the new little camelias, and the hurricane change things into a well-considered ending. Southern themes of family, home, unforgettable characters, and true friendships are the threads that bind the pages into an accurate portrayal of a lovely Louisiana. I was delighted with this story.
Addendum: Young adult fiction, at its best, is provocative. A difficult situation--drugs, abuse, contentious relationships, destructive acts, pregnancies, disease--the list is endless-- becomes the onus for the main character to face and resolve. Tiger's family situation after her granny's death is hers.
Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-01-24
Summary: "Many themes, straight-forward plot"
I think this would be a great book for a kids' book club! It is fairly straight-forward in its plot, the writing is not too simplistic but does have direction, and there are many themes that could be discussed (feeling out of place, alone, and different; changes in friendships between boys and girls; race relations in the 1950's and today; and so forth). The plot certainly could have been developed further (as one reviewer mentioned), but I think the story line was handled well, and leaves the reader to contemplate what else might be (or could be) going on.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2007-05-22
Summary: "My Louisiana Sky"
I think this book was an AWSOME book....it was touching. I think this could be someones real life today.... Overall, I really enjoyed this book...Kimberly Willis Holt is a great auther. I hope more people pick this book up & give it a chance.
-Ashton
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2007-04-21
Summary: "Great Book."
This really is a great book. I am no longer a "young adult," but I enjoyed it.