Hard Times for Jake Smith: A Story of the Depression Era

Hard Times For Jake Smith is a novel set against the background of the 1930's "Great Depression". MaryJake Wildsmith is a 12-year-old girl whose family has fallen on hard times and must leave their worn out farm and migrate somewhere else in search of better prospects. MaryJake thinks she's going with her family but instead is dropped off at the edge of a forest and told to go on into town and fend for herself as best she can. Hurt, bewildered, unprepared, MaryJake ignores her mother's instructions, dyes her hair, disguises herself as a boy, and makes her own way into the world as "Jake Smith". Eventually she uncovers a web of secrets stretching back to before she was born, makes friends, and finds family when she least expects to. Very highly recommended reading and enthusiastically recommended for community library collections, Hard Times For Jake Smith draws from author Aileen Kilgore Henderson's own experiences growing up on a farm in Alabama during the 1930s and gives her superbly written story a true feeling of authenticity.