Days of Little Texas
Grade 7–10—Ronald Earl, aka Little Texas, almost 16, has been on the road with his Aunt Wanda Joy, elderly Sugar Tom, and Certain Certain for nigh on six years, preaching the gospel and performing healings in a long succession of small Southern towns. Lately he feels a fraud, bedeviled by recurring dreams of being with a beautiful blond girl, naked. Sincere in his faith, he's nevertheless beginning to doubt his work, his worthiness. Exhausted after a night's work, he performs one last healing on a girl, Lucy, that feels different. As the days pass, he can't stop thinking about her as she melds with the girl of his dreams. When a large, boisterous crowd in Mississippi cows him, he leaves the stage, unable to preach. Wanda Joy hatches a plan to get him back on track that will test his faith and may, if he's able, defeat the evil that ruined her grandfather on the same site, years before. Are the women in Ronald's life working for good, or ill? A substantial subtext about twisted souls ensnared by slavery leads to increasingly scary and disturbing events, culminating in a showdown with evil reminiscent of M. T. Anderson's climactic battle inThirsty(Candlewick, 1997). Chapters are brief, the pace is rapid, and the tension is high as Ronald wrestles with demons both temporal and spiritual to find his place in the world. An affecting and sharply written story.—Joel Shoemaker, South East Junior High School, Iowa City, IAEND