Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs, two girls from different parts of Kentucky, are participating in the first seventh-grade student exchange program between their schools. The girls will stay at each other’s homes, attend school together, and record their experience in their journals. One is a well-off city girl, the other poor and from rural Appalachia. As the girls grow closer, they discover they’re more alike than different. A charming, enjoyable story. ( )

Maine Student Book Award Nominee 2010-2011

I liked this book quite a lot, and it made me cry. Ivy June has been selected to part of an exchange program. She will spend time in Lexington, Kentucky with Katherine, and then later Katherine will come visit Ivy June in Thunder Creek. There are some culture clashes between the two worlds, to be sure. I must admit I had trouble placing the time period, and the only reason at times I could remember it was set in a modern era was the mention of cell phones. ( )

I loved this book. The author really made you feel what life in the hills of Kentucky would be like. I cried with Ivy June when the men were trapped in the mine. A great lesson on friendships between people from different backgrounds. I'm not sure in real life a situation such as in this book would really work out, but I like to think that it would. The feelings of Ivy June and her new friend Catherine are very authentic. ( )

In this story there are two young girls, one rich and one poor, one with abundance and wealth and another with a family barely making ends meet.

Ivy June is chosen as an exchange student and stays with a wealthy Lexington Kentucky family, in return the wealthy child stays with Ivy June's poor, coal mining family.

In the end they discover the similar bonds that hold them together.
While the plot seems trite, somehow in the hands of this gifted writer, it works. ( )

good story for 9 to 13 about friendship and learning about lifestyles of others