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Summary
Summary
Perhaps there is always a mark, when another person touches you, an invisible thread connecting you to them.
Backbreaking work, threadbare clothes, and black coal dust choking the air -- this is what a miner's daughter knows. Willa Lowell fears that this dust marks her to be nothing else, that she will never win against the constant struggle to survive. Even the fierce flame of her family's love -- her one bright spot against the darkness -- has begun to dim.
Willa yearns for a better life -- enough food to eat, clothes that fit, and a home free of black grit. She also yearns for a special love, the love of a boy who makes her laugh and shares the poetry she carries in her heart.
When a much brighter future is suddenly promised to her family, Willa knows it is a miracle . . . until she discovers that every promise has a price. But she also discovers that the real change has burned inside her all along -- if only she is strong enough to mine it.
Writing in a style that is as breathtaking and lyrical as it is powerful, Gretchen Moran Laskas draws from her family's past to bring to life the story of a girl struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds. The Miner's Daughter will touch readers' hearts and stay with them long after they've read the last word.
Author Notes
Gretchen Moran Laskas has also written the adult novel The Midwife's Tale , which also takes place in West Virginia. She grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but currently lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with her family. Visit her at www.gretchenlaskas.com .
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Willa Laura Lowell is a 16-year-old miner's daughter ushering in the Depression in a West Virginia coal miner's camp. The days are long and hard, but worse when the mine shuts down. There is no money, forcing Willa's father and older brother to look for work elsewhere. Left alone with her mother and three younger siblings, Willa helps as she can and dreams of a better life. Life changes dramatically for her and her family when they are offered a place in a new town. The teen never loses sight of where she came from and is determined to help others as she was helped. Richly drawn characters and plot make this an excellent novel that explores the struggles endured by many in America in the 1930s. The integrity of the characters and their resourcefulness show readers how, with hard work and determination, adversity can be overcome.-Denise Moore, O'Gorman Junior High School, Sioux Falls, SD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Sixteen-year-old Willa and her family wrestle through tough times in a Depression-era coal mining town. Willa becomes the hub of the family, running the household when her mother becomes ill and later feeding the family by becoming a farm laborer. Laskas's evocation of time and place is engrossing. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Sixteen-year-old Willa Lowell lives in "a world of ashy grays"--trees gone, the earth bare, pits smoldering and houses stacked up on the hills like rungs of a ladder and blackened by coal dust. She knows there's a beautiful world beyond her desolate one; she has seen it from walks up the mountain with her brother Ves, looking across the valley to the next mountain over. And Miss Grace, the new lady at the Mission, welcomes Willa to her library, a clean, well-lighted place full of books. It is Miss Grace and her books that lead Willa beyond her narrow world to new hope in Arthurdale, a planned community championed by Eleanor Roosevelt to offer hope in the midst of the Depression. The 1932 West Virginia setting is beautifully realized, historical details never overwhelming a story that succeeds in putting a human face on poverty, prejudice and dreams. Rooted in Laskas's own family history, this is a fine coming-of-age story and an ode to libraries that teachers and librarians will love. (author's note) (Fiction. 12+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Willa has always lived in a tiny West Virginia coal town, where meager food, patched clothes, and hard work are the routine, but when the Depression causes the mines to close, her large family is left with nothing. She poses as a boy to find a job, while her father and brother join a crew doing very dangerous work. Willa's solace comes from Miss Grace, a missionary who opens a library where Willa can indulge her love of reading, and from Johnny, her new beau. Willa's older brother firmly believes that newly elected Franklin Roosevelt will fix things. Indeed, the family becomes part of Arthurdale, the New Deal community, but its good fortune is at the expense of those left behind for not being white or native-born. This bittersweet historical novel may be standard fare, but it has enough emotional resonance thanks to strong Willa, whose compassion, resolve, and literary ability make her a voice of change. Life during the time is convincingly portrayed, and readers will never doubt that Willa and her family are part of it. --Krista Hutley Copyright 2007 Booklist
