[LM_NET] BOOK REVIEW: Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden (Gr. 4-8)

[Toni Buzzeo <tonibuzzeo@TONIBUZZEO.COM>]

Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden (Viking, 2007). ISBN: 978-0-670-06153-2

Madden continues the story of the Weems family (begun in Gentle's 
Holler) deep in the mountains of rural North Carolina.  In this 
second volume, narrator Livy Two turns her attention to her shy 
artistic sister, Louisiana Margaret Pansy Jeanne Marie Weems as the 
fraught year of 1963 unfolds personally for the family and 
politically in the nation.  The story begins as Livy, Louise, and 
their siblings anticipate, and then struggle with, Daddy's return 
from an eight month stay in the Rip Van Winkle rest home following 
his severe head injury.  The Daddy who returns to the family is 
ridden with auditory hallucinations and a significant loss of memory 
that alternately breaks Livy's heart or infuriates her.  Always poor, 
the family is now desperate for money and much of the telling of this 
tale of fear and longing, courage and redemption, is driven by that 
need--and the desire of all of the children to stay in their mountain 
home rather than follow cranky Grandma Horace down to the dreaded 
town of Enka-Stinka where factory work is readily available for Mama. 
Yet Livy Two's strength of spirit shines brightly as she maintains 
her commitment to her father's music and her own, turning out songs 
by the dozen.  She produces a stream of correspondence with record 
producer George Flowers that exemplifies her hope, her determination, 
and her unwillingness to fold, even in the face of seemingly 
insurmountable odds.  Spunky, with the heart of a giant and the 
courage of a lion, Livy Two will cause you to love her and every 
member of her tribe--except, perhaps, the bull-headed Grandma 
Horace.  In Livy's world, there's just no room for failed optimism or 
practicality without joy. [Suggested Grades: 4-8]


Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS <mailto:tonibuzzeo@tonibuzzeo.com>
Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year Emerita
Maine Association of School Libraries Board Member
Buxton, ME 04093
http://www.tonibuzzeo.com
Our Librarian Won't Tell Us ANYTHING! A Mrs. Skorupski Story, 
illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa (Upstart 2006) NEW! 

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