Here is yet another piece of art with a girl absorbed in knitting.  Notice the stance of the dog on the right.   Yep, that’s a watchdawg!

Lena knows her Bible verses.  Lots of  ’em.  Her participation and eventual success in the local verse quoting contest is reason enough to read this book.  Sebestyen’s humor in Lena’s choices will fly right over the young reader’s head.  Lena begins with “God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise…”; after a momentary panic late in the contest she resorts to quoting verses from Song of Solomon usually left unspoken in public “I am black, but comely.” 

Lena, who has to this point been sheltered from racial conflict, discovers the resentment and hostility of the community from her public triumph over a white boy.  Her Papa begins teaching her how to to respond to different neighbors, all of whom are white. Some are to be avoided, some are to be ignored, some are to be obeyed, and some are to be bargained with.  Lena trusts and adores her Papa, but struggles with the injustice of their living situation. 

This would be a great book to read and discuss together with pre-teens.  Caveat:  Lena’s Papa dies from violence at the end of the book.  There are no graphic descriptions, but you need to know what your reader can handle emotionally before you embark.

Listening to Hardy is an odd juxtaposition to reading Wendell Berry.  Hardy makes you indignant and angry about the tragedy of this young woman, the toil and drudgery of her life as a dairy maid; he is unsettling and edgy.  Berry paints pictures of healthy, nourished families within an agrarian community where work is valued, souls are fed, generations are connected, and hope abounds.