Former teacher and school librarian Ruth White is the award-winning author of novels for middle-grade and young adult readers, including Sweet Creek Holler, Weeping Willow, and Belle Prater's Boy. Her stories are set in the South, in particular, the coal-mining region of western Virginia, where she grew up. "After she grew up and moved away from the Appalachian region, she realized that her recollections of life there were her greatest asset as a writer," explained Ian Elliot in Teaching PreK-8. "Stored in her memories was a wealth of unique and wonderful material just waiting to be put down on paper." Those memories became a collection of novels that open a window to life as it was lived in the hills of Appalachia in the mid-twentieth century. Commentators have praised White for her characterizations, her depiction of locale, and her sensitive treatment of such difficult subject matter as the...