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Books for Young Readers Green, Connie Jordon. The War at Home. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989. 137 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $12.95. This book does ring true. It is well written. It does deal with the problems mountain people have adjusting to living in more "modern" communities. It effectively deals with many issues. Ultimately, however, in my opinion it does fail because it does not deal with the crucial issue that its setting raises. It is the story of two cousins who leave the Kentucky mountains when their fathers take jobs at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a town created by the U.S. Government during World War II (along with Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Hanford, Washington) to develop a functioning Atomic Bomb. It is written for grades 5-9. Kids this age are old enough to have already done some thinking about War and Peace, and I think it sells them short not to confront this glaring issue directly in this book. If I Fell in Love with a Watermelon: Poems and Stories by Children from West Whitesburg Elementary. Bob Henry Baber, editor. Whitesburg, Kentucky: Letcher County Arts Council, 1989. 47 pages, illustrated by the children. Trade paperback. $6.00. Actually this book belongs both in the Children's Books and in the Trade Books categories. Because it was written by kids-it is a compilation of their creative writing exercises-it is important for other kids to use it as inspiration and a guide in doing their own books. And it will be fun for lots of kids to read. But it is also important as a book for grown-ups. Many teachers and other youth workers can come to a better understanding of mountain kids by reading this book. The editor, Bob Henry Baber, has made an important contribution in doing all the work involved in putting this together. General Storekeeper He was a doctor of all ills; A needs-dispenser of the hills; Mixing his words with wit and humor, Stirring in truth with a little rumor, A compliment tonic for each consumer. Soda and salt and three nutmegs And all of this for a dozen of eggs. -Earl Hughes The Seeker One lettuce plant not quite in windowlight has uprooted itself, stretching for the bit of sun sliding through Venetian blinds. Would that I could see such seeking the sun in me. -William Jolliff 77 ...

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