Where the Lillies Bloom

I read this book when I was in the 5th or 6th grade and had forgotten how great it is.  I certainly did not appreciate it like I did when I read it this time. It was a touching book about life and growing up and being so poor you don't know where you are going to get your next meal but ultimately about family sticking together.

Mary Call is a 14 year old girl who lives in the Appalachian Mountains at the foot of two mountains- Old Joshua and Sugar Boy.  Mary Call has an older sister Devola who has a slight mental handicap it seems.  Mary Call calls her "cloudy-headed".  She also has two younger siblings- Romey and Ima Dean.  They live with their father, Roy Luther who, at the start of the book, is quite ill already and suffers what appears to be a stroke that leaves him in even worse shape.   Mary Call already works hard to provide for her family and she picks herbs to sell in town.  She manages to get the house and land signed over to the family so they are no longer indebted to the man that wants to marry Devola.

As Roy Luther's health gets worse, he makes Mary Call promise him some things.  She must NOT tell any other adults that he has died.  The children must bury him themselves on Old Joshua.  She must not let Devola marry the man that owned they land they lived on. Mary Call agrees to these things.   When Roy Luther does die Mary Call does the best she can to keep her family going.  Ultimately, they lose the house, live in a cave but in the end, she begins to make decisions for herself and her brother and sisters instead of just relying on the things her father believed and wanted her to do.  She allows Devola to marry Kiser Pease and he in turn, takes all of the children in and provides them with a home and safety.

The story was sweet and hard and sad all at once.  Mary Call was proud and hard working and so determined to take care of the other children.  She did not want to go into foster care and tried her best to make sure she honored her father's requests.  She reminded me of some people I have known in my life that come from backgrounds similar to Mary Call's.   They are strong willed, proud people who go through life doing what they have to do to take care of their families.

I would reccommend this for 4th grade and up.  Some of it is not going to be appreciated by younger children but I think they will still get the general idea behind what is going on.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/395477.Where_the_Lilies_Bloom