Gentle's Holler

In GENTLE'S HOLLER, Kerry Madden introduced young readers to Olivia (better known as Livy Two) Weems, a twelve-year-old with a passion for books and music. Livy has eight siblings of various ages and tempermants, a sweet mama, and a starry-eyed daddy. Money's tight - Daddy's music fills the heart and ears more than it fills the pocketbook - but the Weems make do, and their household is always bursting with family, love, and music. Livy Two also sings and plays music, often writing songs about the struggles her family has faced and the hardships they've overcome. The story is set in 1960s North Carolina, a beautiful backdrop for this artistic and energetic family. As the tale progresses, Livy Two watches carefully over Gentle, the next-to-youngest one in the family, who has always had difficulty with her eyes. Meanwhile, the eldest son, Emmett, looks beyond the holler and fixes his eyes on Ghost Town in the Sky, a new place on the top of a mountain where he might be able to get a job. Livy Two's trips to the lending library truck connect her with another kind soul, Miss Attickson, who encourages Livy's voracious appetite for novels and poetry. GENTLE'S HOLLER is the first in The Maggie Valley Trilogy. The second book, LOUISIANA'S SONG, is just as precious as the first book. I can't wait to read JESSIE'S MOUNTAIN, the final book in the trilogy. This series will be loved by kids and families who enjoyed the All-of-a-Kind Family books by Sidney Taylor, The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, and Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.

It's well worth getting to know Livy II, her parents and her eight (!) living siblings. That Livy's story is shadowed by her ninth sibling, Olivia, or Livy I, and Gentle, her little hard of seeing sister, signals the quirkiness of Kerry Madden's writing. This is a tale of the rural poor in North Carolina in the 1960's, but all kids can relate to the dreams and foolishness and tragedies of Livy II and her family. Remarkably, the author has made each and every sibling, as well as the parents and relatives, a distinct character. Your kid is bound to relate to one of them. This is an especially good story for modern urban kids to take a trip to the country.

randomly picked this book up, and was entranced by it. it's a genuinely funny, touching book that i've bought for the children (both male and female) of a few friends of mine. really strongly recommend!

The Weems family lives in 1960s Appalachia, and their experiences, as related by daughter Livy Two, are vastly different from our modern lives. However Livy Two Weems speaks with a voice as clear as birdsong. She is wise but not a know-it-all; poetic but not precious. Her story is compelling; through hard times her practical good humor serves her, and her readers, well. This is a book that cries to be read out loud -- to a class, a library circle, or at bedtime. Young readers are introduced to issues of poverty, class, artistic impulse, and family devotion in a thought-provoking, but truly gentle, story. I hope we get more books about the hard-working Weems family. Highest recommendation!

Kerry Madden, author of Gentle's Holler, has written a beautiful, humorous and poignant story of a mountain family who knows both poverty and love intimately. Livy Two Weems is 12-years old and has a desire that is burning a hole in her heart to see the world beyond the North Carolina hills. But she also knows how important family is in the scheme of life. And so what she wants and what she knows - is told in the songs she writes and plays on her guitar. I am drawn to and fascinated by Livy Two Weems. Although a child, she is wise, ambitious, kind, loving, smart as a whip and talented. And she has a heart as big as the holler where she lives. It is through Livy's eyes that we see the Weems family and live their struggles. Livy Two's mama is pregnant again, her harsh grandmother has come to visit after neglecting the family for five years, and her daddy is still hanging on to his dream of selling his banjo songs. There are nine children to feed (the tenth, Livy One, died the day she was born) and Livy Two knows that dreams of selling songs doesn't put food on the table. When a doctor tells the family that one of the children, Gentle, will always be blind, Livy Two decides there has to be a plan to help her. But other tragedies visit the Weems home, and Livy Two may not be able to be the strong girl her family needs. There are sad and tragic events that take place in this book but love and hope never take a vacation. The characters are rich, real, complex and the kind you want to meet and ask to stay awhile. I loved all of them and didn't want them to leave. Madden's characters know they are poor, but also know that poverty is a situation and not about who they are. They are wonderful proud people who are doing their best. In our society of conspicuous consumption, wanting it all, dissatisfaction with the small things, we and our children would do well to read this book and take its message to heart. I can only hope that Madden will give us more of Livy Two and her family. It would be sad to just let them go. Their message is far too important.