A young boy dreams of music and sunshine in the Great Smoky Mountains As far as Billy is concerned, there’s no sight more beautiful than the sun setting over the Blue Ridge Mountains. When the day is done, he sneaks away from his work to watch the sun go down. If his father knew, he would call Billy lazy, but Mama would understand. She knows life in the mountains is hard and that there’s no point in living if a person can’t take time to appreciate what he has. Billy dreams of the day when he can pick up his fiddle and sing the folk songs of his people. Until then, he will be content with the sun. This beautifully written novel tells a story of simple fun and irresistible pleasures in 1 of the most beautiful regions in the United States.
Author
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois\_Lenski Many of Lenski's books can be collated into 'series' - but since they don't have to be read in order, you may be better off just looking for more information here: http://library.illinoisstate.edu/uniq... Probably her most famous set is the following: American Regional Series Beginning with Bayou Suzette in 1943, Lois Lenski began writing a series of books which would become known as her "regional series." In the early 1940s Lenski, who suffered from periodic bouts of ill-health, was told by her doctor that she needed to spend the winter months in a warmer climate than her Connecticut home. As a result, Lenski and her husband Arthur Covey traveled south each fall. Lenski wrote in her autobiography, "On my trips south I saw the real America for the first time. I saw and learned what the word region meant as I witnessed firsthand different ways of life unlike my own. What interested me most was the way children were living" (183). In Journey Into Childhood, Lenski wrote that she was struck by the fact that there were "plenty of books that tell how children live in Alaska, Holland, China, and Mexico, but no books at all telling about the many ways children live here in the United States" Bayou Suzette. Strawberry Girl. Blue Ridge Billy. Judy's Journey. Boom Town Boy. Cotton in My Sack. Texas Tomboy. Prairie School. Corn-Farm Boy. San Francisco Boy. Flood Friday. Houseboat Girl. Coal Camp Girl. Shoo-Fly Girl. To Be a Logger. Deer Valley Girl.
