COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER

Little Audrey by Ruth White is historical fiction about a young girl living in a coal mining camp during the Great Depression. As Audrey herself is struggling to recover from the illness which left her underweight and with bad vision, she has to also cope with the loss of a little sister that has left her mother with depression. Her father is an alcoholic mine worker who spends the little money he gets on drinking if he goes to work. There is always shortage of food and hunger lingers at home. The only two people who seem to notice her and like her for who she is, are her teacher and best friend Virgil and she loves them back because they are the only ones who seem to understand her.
Little Audrey's father dies in a car accident while drunk, which devastates the family even more, but ironically his death also brings the end of the tunnel in sight, as they become forced to move out of the mining camp. Her mother will now be able to earn money and bring it all home and Little Audrey and her three other sisters can go to a better school. For grades 5-8.
--Evelyn, Library Assistant