This is the third and final installment of the Maggie Valley trilogy, and many of the Weems family members are facing difficult decisions. Livy Two is still hoping to break into the Nashville music scene. She’s encouraged to reach for her dreams when Grandma Horace gives her Mama’s childhood diary, filled with dreams she never had a chance to follow. The sisters are inspired by the entries in their mother’s diary, and sections of the diary are included throughout the book. While Mama currently struggles with the family’s financial problems and debates moving the family away from their valley home, Livy Two and her younger sister Jitters set out for Nashville and the biggest adventure of their lives. After returning to Maggie Valley the girls, still filled with entrepreneurial spirit, find a way to honor their hardworking Mama and solve the family’s financial problems.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Posted: August 27th, 2009 under 2000-, 2008, Children & Young Adults, Haywood, Madden, Kerry, Mountains, Novels in Series.
Comments: none

In this sequel to Gentle’s Holler, Livy Two’s sister Louise is having a hard time going to school – she’s shy and would rather stay home and work on her art. Daddy is finally back at home after the accident, but the family’s financial problems are getting worse. The Weems children help out as they know how – Emmett still works for the carnival, Livy Two helps out with the bookmobile, Becksie waitresses at the nearby pancake house, and Louise begins to sell portraits. Through their endeavors to help the family, Livy Two and Louise begin to come into their own. The confidence Louise gains from selling her art helps her to stand up to the bullies at school in her own special way. Livy Two is also empowered by working and begins to send her songs to the music men in Nashville. However, when Daddy goes missing, will their confidence be shaken?

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Posted: August 26th, 2009 under 2000-, 2007, Children & Young Adults, Haywood, Madden, Kerry, Mountains, Novels in Series.
Comments: none

When she’s not babysitting her younger siblings and helping out with household chores, twelve-year-old Livy Two Weems has a wild imagination and wanderlust about seeing the world outside of her mountain valley, largely inspired by the books she borrows from the mobile library. She’s also creative, and takes after her father, a struggling song writer and banjo player. The song lyrics and guitar riffs Livy Two writes about her life and family relationships are interspersed throughout the chapters.

Livy Two’s youngest sister is just a toddler, but Gentle was born blind and needs extra help. The emotional ties between the sisters are explored throughout the book. After Gentle is lost for a few hours in the valley, the tie between Livy Two and Gentle is cemented when Mama ties the two girls together with an apron to prevent Gentle from getting lost again. Through all this, Livy Two keeps her chin up, but when a terrible accident happens to her father, she isn’t sure if she can be strong enough to help her family through these trying times.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

Posted: August 25th, 2009 under 2000-, 2005, Children & Young Adults, Haywood, Madden, Kerry, Mountains, Novels in Series.
Comments: none

• Gentle’s Holler.  New York: Viking, 2005.
• Louisiana’s Song.  New York: Viking, 2007.
• Jessie’s Mountain.  New York: Viking, 2008.

Set in the mountains of North Carolina during the early 1960s, the books in the Maggie Valley trilogy follow the Weems family as they go through life in a small valley town in Haywood County.  Jessie and Tom Weems have ten children, with unique talents and personalities.  The books are narrated by Livy Two, their second oldest daughter who is twelve years old and full of moxie.  Livy Two writes her own songs, plays the guitar, and generally takes after her father.  Mountain music and song lyrics are included in many of the chapters, creatively explaining how Livy Two sees the relationships between family members and describing their way of life.  The Weems family is also joined by the cantankerous Grandma Horace and an affable pet dog, Uncle Hazard.  While nothing ever seems to be easy for the Weems family, their ties stay strong as they experience financial problems, health problems, and a major accident.  The novels explore the relationships among all the Weems children, but pay particular attention to three of the Weems daughters – Livy Two, Louise, and Jitters – as they come into their own.

Posted: August 25th, 2009 under Children & Young Adults, Haywood, Madden, Kerry, Mountains, Novels in Series, Series.
Comments: 1

Set in 1929, Serena begins with timber-baron George Pemberton bringing his new wife from Boston to the North Carolina Mountains. The wife is the titular Serena, an ambitious and intelligent woman who is a good match for her husband and who quickly settles into life in the lumber camp. But as many of her material desires are met, she also faces dissatisfactions due to uncertain investors, the presence of Pemberton’s illegitimate child, and the U.S. government’s attempts to buy land to form Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Her ambitions and cruelty grow. In addition to portraying Serena as a Lady MacBeth-like character, author Ron Rash also presents a look at early environmentalism and shows the harsh and dangerous world of timber labor during the Great Depression. Serena was listed as one of the best books of 2008 by The New York Times, Amazon.com and Publishers Weekly.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Posted: December 9th, 2008 under 2000-, 2008, Haywood, Historical, Mountains, Rash, Ron.
Comments: none

Born at the turn of the twentieth century, Selena “Sippy” Wright lives in North Carolina’s Great Smokies, with her parents. After a fire destroys the family’s cabin, they go to live with Sippy’s Grandmother and her youngest three children, and, while life on Utah Mountain is hard, the family struggles and survives together. Sippy’s story is filled with the work, school, and play of mountain children, but also includes details about her father’s work, her mother’s housekeeping, her grandmother’s medicinal herbs, and the events, songs, and games that were important to mountain culture. Based on the journals and recollections of the author’s mother, this novel tells the story of Sippy’s childhood from ages seven to twelve; her story is continued in Scearce’s second novel Cotton Mill Girl, published in 2006.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Posted: May 27th, 2008 under 1990-1999, 1997, Docufiction, Haywood, Historical, Mountains, Novels in Series, Scearce, Flora Ann.
Comments: none

Cold Mountain is the story of Inman, a deserter from the Confederate Army, and his long journey home to the mountains of North Carolina during the last year of the Civil War. The novel alternates between Inman’s struggles and those of Ada, who is at home near Cold Mountain and is able to get by only with the help of Ruby, a mountain woman unafraid to fend for herself. Cold Mountain, winner of the National Book Award in 1997, has been praised for its accuracy in portraying geographical and horticultural details, as well as the particulars of nineteenth-century life in the North Carolina mountains. The book also inspired the 2003 Oscar-winning film of the same name.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Posted: March 13th, 2008 under 1990-1999, 1997, Frazier, Charles, Haywood, Historical, Mountains.
Comments: none