A Blue-Eyed Daisy

Quiet, lovely, concise. Some would say slow. I say, worth savoring. It would make a fantastic family read-aloud with time allotted for conversation, as the kids will be given an opportunity to imagine themselves as part of Ellie's family or community, and thus to learn empathy and compassion.

There's more to say about it, but you'll have to read other reviews, or better yet the book itself. I don't want to spoil the memory of it for myself by analyzing it to bits.

Pellucid prose and an approachable narrator combine to make this a warm story with flashes of pain. A slice of West Virginia coal-mining town life from the point of view of 11 year old Ellie.

Susan says: This is a funny little book - it takes place over a full year,and is the story of Ellie, her five sisters and their parents living in the rural Appalachian mountains. Ellie is worried about growing up and becoming a teenager - she likes being her father's 'boy' and being the child who is closest to him. Her father is an alcoholic, and while everyone knows about it, it is different than today's society in that no one does anything about it, other than watch. The whole story is told from Ellie's point of view, but in some ways, even though Ellie is turning twelve at the end of the book, it would be more appropriate for a slightly older reader, who has already been through those growing pains. Sweetly told and concise, it show more leaves you filling in the gaps and wondering how Ellie turns out. show less

With simple sentence structure, this chapter book would work with elementary students. The protagonist is 11-going on 12, the writing seems geared for a younger age, and the issues are those of a girl just on the cusp of puberty: friendship, death, self-assurance, parental disharmony.
Not sure of the locale: her father is a disabled miner & they live on a mountain so my first thought was WV, but the later talk of huge snow storm made me think of PA. The time setting is kind of indeterminate also: no mention of cell phones, but other than that I don't think modern youth will feel the book is dated.

This book is about a girl named Ellie and her five sisters that live in the Appalachian Mountains. She is nervous to become a teenager, and losing her place as the child who is closest to her alcoholic dad. It is told by her point of view and lets the reader go through her growing pains with her as they happen.