Grandpa's Mountain
Grade 5-8-- Historical facts surrounding the 1935 creation of Shenandoah National Park form the base on which Reeder convincingly overlays a fictional story rich in character delineation and development. Carrie, 11, loves to spend summers at her grandparents' home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, away from hard times in the city. Everything is thrown akimbo when the government begins buying up thousands of mountain acres, evicting the occupants and burning their homes. At first Grandpa is unbelieving, then he convinces himself that, with the support of his like-minded neighbors, he can fight to win. However, many of them--poor and uneducated, some merely subsistence tenant farmers--welcome the chance to sell or be relocated near town and are furious at him for interfering. The longer Grandpa fights, the more alone he stands. While resisting change, he himself is changed, becoming as hard and intractable as the men he opposes. Carrie is torn between her respect for him and shock at his behavior. Through seemingly traitorous actions, Grandma makes it possible for him to win his personal fight against defeatism. Carrie returns to her parents' home at summer's end, strengthened by two stalwart grandparents and the way each chose to deal with crisis. This portrayal of one set of events and its consequences during the Great Depression has relevance for situations today in which the government still pits projected benefits for the many against total disruption of the few. --Katharine Bruner, Brown Middle School, Harrison, TNCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.