Catch the Spirit of Creativity, and: Matchbox Mountain (review)

Sheriff Spencer Arrowood also has to deal with murder, a fotchedon deejay who stirs the stew, a female deputy out to prove her worth by capturing Hiram, and the rest of the tangled web Sharyn McCrumb weaves against an authentic East Tennessee backdrop. Yet, within all the action, McCrumb opens chapter eight with a 2,000 year geology lesson: "Mountains, too, have a lineage. That spine of towering rocks that rises in Georgia and ends with the sea in Nova Scotia, the Appalachian Mountains have long-lost kinfolk on the other side of the Atlantic. The bloodline that marks that kinship is a vein of green mineral called serpentine that snakes an intermittent trail from Georgia to Newfoundland, then appears again in the western extremities of the Caldonides in Ireland . From there the traces stretch through Scotiand, Wales, and England , turning northward through the Shetland Islands, witii a branch touching Greenland, and another line crossing Scandinavia to end in the Arctic Circle. "Perhaps," concludes McCrumb, "when the pioneer descendants of those ancient Celts halted their covered wagons, looked up at the green mountains of Appalachia and felt at home, they were more right than they knew." Even a "ballad" series, in the hands of Sharyn McCrumb, becomes an encyclopedia of Appalachian history, folklore, geology, and mythology , couched under the genre of "mystery." McCrumb is doing for Appalachia what Tony Hillerman does for the Southwest, teaching history and culture to readers who'd never venture near a volume labeled as such. McCrumb dedicates her latest book to Gurney Norman, "the fox on the run," and prefaces the novel with James Still's poem "Heritage." She Walks These Hills follows The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and If I Ever Return, Pretty Peggy-O in McCrumb's ballad series. Next up is Little Rosewood Casket. With the clear, uncluttered voice of a traditional balladeer, Sharyn McCrumb continues to bridge the gap between the popular book market and Appalachian Studies. —Garry Barker Amy Animons Garza and Doreyl Animons. Catch the Spirit of Creativity . Asheville, N.C: Bright Mountain Books, Inc., 1994. 28 pages. $3.95. 63 Amy Animons Garza. Matchbox Mountain. Illustrated by Doreyl Ammons. Asheville, N.C: Bright Mountain Books, Inc. 1994. 90 pages. $6.95 Amy Ammons Garza found her voice through creative writing when she took a class at an extended campus of Purdue University fourteen years ago. Since that time she has written two novels, many articles about her Appalachian heritage, and columns for a trucking magazine. This success in writing led Amy and her sister, Doreyl Ammons, an artist, to become visiting teachers in Western North Carolina public schools. They co-founded a nonprofit organization called Catch the Spirit of Appalachia, through which they try to promote literacy, pride in regional heritage, and creativity in people of all ages. When the Ammons sisters discovered that there was a lack of curriculum materials that encouraged self-expression, they developed two books to fill this need. Catch the Spirit of Creativity is a workbook designed for use in workshops, and classrooms or by individual children and adults. This workbook has a lot of potential for use in literacy programs and adult education. Although it is simple and nonthreatening , it is not simplistic or paternalistic. A companion volume, Matchbox Mountain is a collection of short stories told from the perspective of a ten-year-old girl who lived in an isolated cabin near Tuckasegee, N.C, in 1952. These stories portray a family that faces poverty with hard work, good humor, and decency. There is an honesty in these stories that speaks for many people who are experiencing or have experienced limited financial resources without being defeated and have found a variety of ways to "make do." These two books, which can be used together or independently, may well encourage the further development of a variety of materials that will assist people in self-expression. In an era celebrating multiculturalism, the Ammons sisters make a very real contribution by encouraging rural people to express themselves. Perhaps their writings and illustrations will be viewed by some as amateurish and unsophisticated . Nevertheless, these books will be enjoyed and used by people who have many...