Appalachian Fiction for Children and Young Adults

Compiled by Judy A. Teaford and Tina L. Hanlon

Note: If you have suggestions or annotated entries for this or other AppLit pages, please send them to Tina Hanlon. Some links within this bibliography go to related AppLit pages and some go to other web sites (most authors now have their own web sites). Summaries in quotation marks are from Worldcat/library catalog summaries or publisher descriptions, unless otherwise identified. Some Appalachian books for adults about childhood and adolescence are listed at Other Appalachian Literature for Adults about Childhood.

Additional AppLit Resource: 

Index of AppLit Pages by Genre: Fiction for Children and Young Adults

Fiction in picture books is listed in Realistic Appalachian Picture Books and Appalachian Folktales and Folk Songs in Picture Books.

Novels

B

Baker, Julie. Up Molasses Mountain. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2002. Set in Clay, West Virginia, the novel is written in two distinct voices, those of fifteen-year-old Elizabeth and Clarence, who suffers the continual jokes and laughter of his peers because he has a harelip. During the year of 1953, the circus comes to town, a strike divides father and son, Elizabeth learns about loss, and both she and Clarence share a brief period of peace and hope. Many real-life historical people are mentioned in the novel: Mrs. Roosevelt, John L. Lewis, Mother Jones. Folk hero John Henry is mentioned. Pieces of strike songs and hymns dot the storyline, emphasizing the Appalachian setting. Julie Baker, the author, grew up in West Virginia listening to stories about the mine wars.

Beatty, Patricia.  Charley Skedaddle. New York:  Troll, 1989. The protagonist hides in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the Civil War.

Belton, Sandra. McKendree. New York: Greenwillow Books, 2000. "McKendree ain't a who. It's a place" (1). In fact, McKendree is a real place in West Virginia, near Mt. Hope, east of Charleston, the state capital. Tilara Haynes, the protagonist of the novel, is going there for the summer to visit her Aunt Cloelle. Memories flood Tilara's mind as she returns to her family's homeplace--the rhythm of the language, the beauty of the mountains. This summer Tilara and some of the young people of Warren Springs spend time at McKendree, a home for old people.  The elderly residents tell stories of times past, stories that reveal pride and stories that reveal vanity, maybe even stereotyping--stories about the Harlem Renaissance and the Cotton Club.  They become attached to the young people. And the young people, much to their surprise, become attached to them. It is a time of growth, a time to learn to love--self and others.  But there's more going on in McKendree and in the minds of the young people, who learn a great deal about themselves and life by helping others. "March stood next to Tilara, his face a golden profile against the deep chocolate of her cheeks and hair. On Tilara's other side, Olivia's freckled, sugarcane face peeked from under a crown of reddish curls as she leaned close to Thumb, whose face and hair matched the color of shaded desert sand.  Next to him, Georgia's sun-daisy face was framed by the yellow-brown ribbon curls that fell across her cheeks and shoulder. Completing the circle was Braxton, his ebony face and hair rising above the others" (169). Dr. Adolphus Courtland locked this picture inside himself whispering "lines from one of his favorite poems:  'The night is beautiful,/So the faces of my people. . . '" (169). It was a good summer, but it was also a hard summer, a summer for coming to terms with the truth and learning about self.

Brand, Irene B. The Hills Are Calling. Charleston, WV: Mountain State Press, 1990. The novel is set in West Virginia in the fictional town of Verndale in the 1930s.

Burch, Robert. Christmas with Ida Early. New York: Viking Press, 1983. "Ida Early, who keeps house for the Sutton family in rural Georgia during the Depression, becomes the unwitting target of the children's matchmaking schemes during the holiday season."

Burch, Robert. Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain. New York: Viking, 1980. 145 pp. Sold for ages 9-12. "Tough times in rural Georgia during the Depression take a lively turn when spirited Ida Early arrives to keep house for the Suttons." Review and study guide by Carol Hurst in Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site. See sequel above.

Burch, Robert. Queenie Peavy. Illus. Jerry Lazare. New York: Viking Press, 1966. "Tormented by taunts that her father is in prison, thirteen-year-old Queenie retaliates by causing a lot of trouble until she discovers something important about her father and herself." Set in rural Georgia.

Byars, Betsy. After the Goat Man. Illus. Ronald Himler. New York: Viking, 1974. During one eventful summer evening in a West Virginia city, two children try to help a new boy in the neighborhood, Figgy, and his stern grandfather, known as the Goat Man, who was forcibly removed from his mountain cabin for the building of Interstate 79. Figgy and his new friend Ada are motherless, while Harold's mother appears only as a presence in his consciousness and a voice in the background, constantly trying to keep him from overeating.  Byars gives sensitive depictions of the two boys' thought processes–the overweight boy with an active imagination and constant hunger pangs, and the insecure new boy, clutching his rabbit's foot, whose biggest fantasy is accumulating wealth in long Monopoly games with the other children. Bewildered when the grandfather disappears with his shotgun, Figgy and friends set out on a trek to the highway construction site that is interrupted by an accident. Harold learns how to feel true empathy when he faces the grandfather and the cabin, which transforms in Harold's imagination from a pile of trash that is about to be razed to a carefully built rural home once surrounded by trees.  Harold's haunting memories of having to play the third hippopotamus on Noah's ark in a Bible school play represent his fears of his own differences and the realization that the old Goat Man can not be forced to fit in to city life. 

Byars, Betsy. Goodbye, Chicken Little. New York: Scholastic, 1979. "A boy discovers that he doesn't have to feel personally responsible for his uncle's drowning."

Byars, Betsy. Midnight Fox. New York: Scholastic, 1968. Grades 5-6. "Tony dislikes spending the summer on his aunt's farm until he discovers a black fox in the forest and tracks her to her den."

Byars, Betsy. The Summer of the Swans. Illus. Ted CoConis. New York: Puffin Books, 1970. Sara Godfrey, 14, bored and insecure, lives with her Aunt Willie; a widowed father who comes home on occasional weekends from his job in Ohio; an older sister preoccupied with her boyfriend; their sleepy old dog; and a ten-year-old brother, Charlie, who suffered brain damage in early childhood and cannot talk. The close ties among all the family members except the father are renewed during the twenty-four hours depicted in the novel, when Charlie wanders out of the house during the night and tries to find the swans he and Sara had been watching in a nearby park.  As neighbors and townspeople gather to hunt for Charlie, Sara learns she had misjudged a boy from her school and they become friends.  Byars gives a sensitive portrayal of the perspective of the handicapped child and the sister who has watched over him so closely. Sara's family and neighborhood are like those in any American town, except that the beautiful West Virginia mountains and nearby strip mines are important parts of the setting during the search for Charlie. Winner of the Newbery Medal. 

Byars, Betsy Cromer. Trouble River. Illus. Rocco Negri. New York: Viking Press, 1969. "When he builds his raft, a twelve-year-old boy never dreams that it will serve as the sole means of escape for himself and his grandmother when hostile Indians threaten their prairie cabin."

C

Caudill, Rebecca. Barrie and Daughter. Illus.  Berkeley Williams. Eau Claire, WI: E.M. Hale, 1943.

Caudill, Rebecca. Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charley?  Illus. William Grossman. New York: Yearling Book, 1966. 94 pp.

Caudill, Rebecca. The Far-Off Land. Illus. Brinton Turkle. New York: Viking Press, 1964.

Caudill, Rebecca. Happy Little Family. Illus. Decie Merwin. Philadelphia: J.C. Winston Co, 1947. 116 pp. Rpt. Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem Books and San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004. "Five adventures in Bonny's busy four-year-old life with her three sisters and brothers in the days of copper-toed shoes."

Caudill, Rebecca. Schoolhouse in the Woods. Illus. Decie Merwin. Philadelphia, Winston Co., 1949. Rpt. Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem Books and San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004. 129 pp. "During her first year in a one-room school in the Kentucky hills, Bonnie has many exciting experiences, from getting her first book to playing an angel in a play.

Caudill, Rebecca. Tree of Freedom. Illus. Dorothy Bayley Morse. New York: Viking, 1949, "The two eldest children of a pioneer family are determined to carry their love of beauty and learning to their new home in the Kentucky Wilderness."

Caudill, Rebecca. Up and Down the River. Philadelphia: Winston, 1951. "Bonnie and Debbie try to 'get rich' over summer vacation by selling laundry bluing and pictures door to door in rural Kentucky at the beginning of the 20th century, but summer's end finds them with a yard full of pets and empty pockets."

For details on some Rebecca Caudill books, see article "The Contributions of Rebecca Caudill and Dorothy Hoobler to Appalachian Literature for Young Adults" and Teaching Guide.

Chaffin, Lillie D. John Henry McCoy. Illus. Emanuel Schongut. New York: Macmillan, 1971."Tired of constant moves, a ten-year-old boy tries to find a way to help his family settle permanently in Appalachia."

Clark, Billy C. The Champion of Sourwood Mountain. Illus. Harold Eldridge. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1966. "Growing up in the farm country of eastern Kentucky, fourteen-year-old Aram Tate's all-consuming passion is to own a hound dog. His efforts to achieve this dream involve him in a series of comical adventures which broaden his view of the world."

Clark, Billy C. Goodbye Kate. 1964. Ed. Jerry A. Herndon. Illus. Harold Eldridge. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994. 274 pp. "Follows the misadventures of a country boy from Kentucky and his mischievous mule."

Clark, Billy C. Mooneyed Hound. 1957. Illus. Jim Marsh. Ed. James M. Gifford, Patricia A. Hall, and Chuck D. Charles. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1995. 144 pp. Sequel to Trail of the Hunter's Horn. "Anxious to acquire a good coon dog, which is a badge of manhood in his Kentucky mountains, Jeb is dismayed when the pup he awaits is born with a stub tail and moon eye." (1958 ed. illustrated by Nedda Walker)

Clark, Billy C. Riverboy. Ed. Tracey Besmark. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1997. 160 pp.

Clark, Billy C. Song of the River. 1957. Illus. Ezra Jack Keats. Ed. James M. Gifford, Chuck D. Charles, and Eleanor Kersey.  Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994. 144 pp. Introduction by Gurney Norman. "Having grown old living in his shantyboat on the Big Sandy River in eastern Kentucky, John engages in a final battle with Scrapiron Jack, the huge catfish he has been trying to catch for years."

Clark, Billy C. The Trail of the Hunter's Horn. 1957. Illus. Jim Marsh. Eds. James M. Gifford, Patricia A. Hall, and Chuck D. Charles. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1995. 96 pp. (1957 ed. illustrated by Veronica Reed)

Clark, Billy C. Useless Dog. Illus. Jim Marsh. Eds. James M. Gifford, Chuck D. Charles, and Patricia A. Hall. New York: Putnam, 1996. Rpt. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1996. 144 pp.

Cleaver, Vera, and Bill. Trial Valley.  New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1977. Trial Valley continues the story that begins in Where The Lilies Bloom. The three Luther children (Mary Call, Romey, and Ima Dean) discover a lost boy near their house in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Cleaver, Vera, and Bill. Where the Lilies Bloom. New York: Harper Trophy, 1969. Very popular children’s novel about a family in western NC struggling to live off the land (sometime earlier in 20th century). The oldest daughter keeps the family together after the father’s death. The authors put notes in the back about the practice of “wildcrafting,” collecting plant products to sell for a living. Also made into a popular film. See more in Study Guide in AppLit.  

Cole, Norma. The Final Tide. New York: M. K. McElderry Books, 1990. "When the Tennessee Valley Authority builds a dam at Wolf Creek to bring electricity to Tollers Ridge, Kentucky, everyone in fourteen-year-old Geneva's family prepares to move to higher ground except for Granny who refuses to leave her home."

Cornelissen, Cornelia. Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears. New York:  Bantam, 1998. Nine-year-old Soft Rain loves hearing stories daily from her grandmother, until her family is separated during the forced removal of their people from North Carolina to Oklahoma, and the blind grandmother has to be left behind. The book contains background and a bibliography of fiction and nonfiction for all ages on Cherokee legends and history. See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature and Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction.

Crook, Beverly Courtney. Fair Annie of Old Mule Hollow. New York:  McGraw Hill, 1978. 175 pp. Worldcat summary: "When Fair Annie, a sheltered mountain girl, inadvertently strays into forbidden McFarr territory her life opens up to tragedy and to love." Annie is a smart eighth-grade girl who hopes to be a lawyer, although she is completely isolated from modern society on the WV-KY border in 1965. Roberta T. Herrin has written about this novel's "phony depictions of Appalachians and their speech" (in "'Shall We Teach 'Em or Learn 'Em?': Attitudes toward Language in Appalachian Children's Literature." Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association, vol. 3 (1991): p. 193). Herrin finds Annie's standard English speech and the father's praise of Annie's learning to be unrealistic, although it is interesting that the father expects his daughter's education to help her people deal with the "governmint."

Crum, Shutta. Spitting Image. New York: Clarion Books, 2003. 224 pp. "In the small town of Baylor, Kentucky, twelve-year-old Jessie K. Bovey and her friends confront some of life's questions during their summer vacation in the late 1960s," during Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty

Curry, Jane Louise. The Daybreakers. Illus. Charles Robinson. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970. "While exploring what they think is an underground passage [in WV], three children are transported back in time to an ancient Indian civilization."

Curry, Jane Louise. The Watchers. New York: Atheneum, 1975. "Rebellious and unhappy at being shipped off to live with strange kinfolk in the mountains of West Virginia, a young boy is drawn into an ancient conflict that moves back and forth in time." Roberta Herrin noted in 1987 that this novel "combines fantasy with the contemporary theme of a coal company's claim on a West Virginia family's land. In both of Curry's books, Appalachian culture, dress, language, names, occupations are central to the fantasy" ("Appalachian Books for All Children." Now and Then,  vol. 4.1, 1987: p. 34)

D 

Davis, Jenny. Good-bye And Keep Cold. New York: Orchard Books, 1987. This exceptional first novel is set in eastern Kentucky. When narrator Edda is eight years old, her father is killed in a strip-mining accident.  The novel is a coming-of-age story that also relays the struggles the Combs family faces as they try to rebuild and move forward with their lives.  

Depew, Lanette. A Bridge Spanning Time. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 2003. 96 pp. Based on the history of a bridge in Elizabethton, TN. See Overmountain web site for summary and picture. Sold for ages 9-12.

Dowell, Frances O'Roark. Dovey Coe. New York: Aladdin, 2000. 181 pp. The narrator is a 12-year-old girl in rural Watauga County, NC in 1926, who is charged with killing the son of the richest family in town. On the first page she describes Parnell Caraway as "the meanest, vainest, greediest man who ever lived. Seventeen years old and rotten to the core." Dovey tells of her family's long history of living on their own land, her deaf brother and his dogs Huck and Tom, her parents' efforts to raise independent and loving children, her pretty older sister Caroline's desire for travel and education, Parnell's courtship of Caroline before Caroline is to leave for teachers college in Boone, and the murder trial. The economic and social inequalities of the community play a role in the plot, as well as discrimination against deaf children and traditions of folk medicine and music. A ghost makes a brief appearance toward the end. Dovey calls her school in Indian Creek "a poor excuse for an institution of learning," since with a series of teachers "straight out of teachers college who thought she was doing her Christian duty by coming up here and learning us hillbillies" (p. 19). Dovey's lawyer calls her at the end "a might big force to be reckoned with" (p. 180). During her trial, when she is threatened with becoming a flatlander in a detention home in Charlotte, Dovey observes "the mountains that framed our town like a circle of wise old men and women" and reminisces about running up the trail of Katie's Knob "searching for all the interesting things a mountain had to offer" (p. 156).

E

Eckert, Allan W. Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnees. Ashland, KY:  Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2003. Eckert writes, "In the year 1771, a white boy named Marmaduke Van Swearingen was captured by Shawnee Indians in what is now West Virginia. . . taken to Ohio where he was adopted into the tribe and given the name Blue Jacket, from the blue shirt he was wearing. . . and became the only white to be made war chief of the Shawnee Nation. . . The characters in this book were real people who lived the life and did the things herein recounted.  Much of the dialogue is taken from historical records" (Front Cover).  There has been great debate regarding the truth of Blue Jacket's heritage.  To read more about this, see the following sites:  Blue Jacket: Fact or Fiction and Indian Heritage: Shawnee and Cherokee.   

F

Forman, James D. A Ballad for Hogskin Hill. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1979. 229 pp. Set in the mountains of Kentucky. A boy and his family try to stop the strip mining that threatens to take their home. Roberta Herrin has noted the "complex characterization" in this novel ("Appalachian Books for All Children." Now and Then,  vol. 4.1, 1987: p. 35).

G 

Gibbons, Faye. Mighty Close to Heaven. New York: Morrow, 1985. "When twelve-year-old Dave runs away from his grandparents' farm and makes his way through the Georgia mountains to rejoin his wandering father, he finds disappointment and a new appreciation for what he has left behind."

Gibbons, Faye. Some Glad Morning. New York: Morrow, 1982. "Following her mother's separation from her alcoholic father in 1947, city-bred Maude must learn how to get along with her mother's relatives when they move to the mountains of northern Georgia."

Green, Connie Jordan. Emmy. Illus. Bob Crofut. Margaret McElderry, 1992. "In the 1920s when her father is disabled in a coal mining accident, eleven-year-old Emmy and the others in her family do what they can to help, with her fourteen-year-old brother taking Pa's place in the mines."

Green, Michelle Y. Willie Pearl. Illus. Steve McCracken.  Temple Hills, MD: William Ruth, 1990.

Green, Michelle Y. Willie Pearl: Under the Mountain. Temple Hills, MD: William Ruth, 1992. "Historical fiction for families, set in a Depression-era coal mining town in eastern Kentucky."

H

Hamilton, Virginia. M. C. Higgins, the Great.  New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1974. Set in the hill country in eastern Ohio. Hamilton depicts a young boy’s fears of living under the shadow of the refuse of the coal mining industry with its slag heaps, sludge, acidic run-off, and mountaintop removal (notes by Susan V. Mead). See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature and Folklore in Books by Virginia Hamilton. 

Hamilton, Virginia. The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl. New York: Harper & Row, 1998. Fascinating historical fantasy about an African goddess created by Hamilton as a sister of John de Conquer and John Henry, who comes to America during the Civil War, getting involved after the war with African Americans and Cherokees hiding in rural Georgia, then migrating north, over the Ohio River, to escape persecution. See more on this book in Folklore in Fiction Bibliography: Virginia Hamilton. Cover by Leo and Diane Dillon at left, showing Pearl and John de Conquer flying to America from Africa as albatrosses.

Hankla, Cathryn. A Blue Moon in Poorwater: A Novel. 1988. Charlottesville: U of VA Press, 1998. "Cathryn Hankla's first novel is an engaging coming-of-age story set in the small Appalachian mining town of Poorwater, Virginia. It is the summer of 1968, and the narrator, inquisitive ten-year-old Dorie Parks, is getting ready to enter fifth grade when her errant older brother Willie returns to town....Dorie's father, a miner, begins a dangerous labor rights crusade after a mining accident leaves a close friend dead" (part of description from publisher web site).

Hermes, Patricia. Sweet By and By. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Set in the mountains of Tennessee, Hermes' novel tells the story of eleven-year-old Blessing, who lives with her grandmother, Moonie. Unfortunately, Moonie's heart is weak, and she wants to prepare Blessing for the inevitable. Blessing spies on the four potential families and stands up to a social worker. 

Hite, Sid. It's Nothing to a Mountain. New York: Henry Holt, 1994. In 1969, a brother and sister, 12 and 14, live with their grandparents on a homestead in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia (where Hite grew up). Among their adventures is an encounter with a 15-year-old runaway living in the wilderness. Hite stresses the "geographic isolation" and "inherently nostalgic mind-set of mountain people in general" (p. 44), as well as the beautiful landscapes and "the ancient mountains'" sympathy with the troubled young characters in the story.

Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas. The Trail on Which They Wept: The Story of a Cherokee Girl. Morristown, NJ: Silver Burdett Press, l992. For details, see article "The Contributions of Rebecca Caudill and Dorothy Hoobler to Appalachian Literature for Young Adults" and Teaching Guide.

Hostetter, Joyce Moyer. Blue. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill/Calkins Creek Books, 2006. A historical novel about a girl during a polio epidemic in Hostetter's home town of Hickory, NC, where an emergency hospital was located in 1944.

Houston, Gloria. Bright Freedom’s Song: A Story of the Underground Railroad. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998. Houston's book teaches children the means by which enslaved people who escaped were hidden on farms and smuggled to the next safe house along their journey.  This Houston novel makes clear the danger that early African Americans were willing to endure to obtain their freedom. Because she develops a strong character of the former slave Marcus, who comes from freedom in Canada to lead others on their journey, Houston refrains from elevating the white family’s role to that of primary hero. This novel is an extremely useful vehicle for teaching young people about a myriad of historical social ills; as a result, readers can gain greater understanding of the stereotypes that young people struggle with even today (notes by Susan V. Mead). See more on this book in Celebrating Diversity in Appalachia!  Exploring Social Issues Through Appalachian Children's Literature.

Houston, Gloria. LittleJim. New York: Beech Tree, 1990. At age 12, Littlejim Houston struggles to live up to his stern father's expectations that he should start acting like a man. Littlejim's loving, German-born mother, along with his sympathetic little sister, the teacher Mr. Osk, and several male relatives and friends, contrast with the gruff father who is never satisfied with his son. Several mishaps result from Littlejim's attempts to do a man's work. During World War I, Bigjim Houston and his brother work hard in the lumber and sawmill business providing supplies for the military. Many details of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina are described, including the astonishing introduction of the first automobile in the community. After Littlejim talks to an Irish man and then witnesses a fatal accident at the sawmill, he is inspired to write about the immigrant experience for an essay contest on what it means to be an American. Even though his father disapproves, Littlejim decides to follow his own scholarly interests and talents, hoping to read his winning essay at the big July Fourth celebration up on Grassy Ridge Bald Mountain. Houston's picture book Littlejim's Gift:  An Appalachian Christmas Story is a prequel to this novel. 

Houston, Gloria. Mountain Valor. Illus. Thomas B. Allen. New York: Putnam & Grosset, 1994. "With her father and brothers gone to serve in the Civil War and her mother sick, teenage Valor ignores what is proper behavior for a girl and fights to defend her North Carolina mountain farm" (publisher review).

Humphrey, William. No Resting Place. New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1989. "A fictionalized tale recounts the forced removal of the Cherokee nation from Georgia, to Tennessee, to Texas along the Trail of Tears and the devastation of that exodus to Native Americans. The Cherokee Indians of the State of Georgia, including those who have been Christian for generations, are forced to move west along the Trail of Tears. Nothing - not the white man's god nor the Chief justice of the Supreme Court - can change their fate" (Worldcat).

Hurmence, Belinda. A Girl Called Boy. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1982. After a picnic in the NC mountains, "a pampered young black girl who has been mysteriously transported back to the days of slavery, struggles to escape her bondage."

J

Janus, Christopher G. Miss 4th of July, Good-bye: A Novel Based on the Life of Niki (Born Xenopoulos) Janus. Chicago: Lake View Press, 1989. About Greek-Americans in West Virginia.

Justus, May. See separate bibliography in AppLit.

K

Keehn, Sally M. Gnat Stokes and the Foggy Bottom Swamp Queen. New York: Philomel Books, 2005. In an adaptation of the Scottish ballad "Tam Lin" set in Eastern Tennessee, twelve-year-old Gnat tries to rescue Goodlow Pryce, kidnapped seven years earlier.

Keehn, Sally M. Magpie Gabbard and the Quest for the Buried Moon. New York: Philomel Books, 2007. 208 pp. Original tall tale about a nineteenth-century thirteen-year-old girl in eastern KY who achieves incredible feats such as returning her brother's chopped-off toe, ending a feud, and rescuing the moon that was trapped by goblins. Inspired partially by "a little-known English tale about the moon coming to earth as a beautiful woman." A native of Maryland, Keehn learned Appalachian language fom West Virginians around her when she grew up and from listening to storytellers and visiting Appalachia.

Key, Alexander. Escape to Witch Mountain. Illus. Leon B. Wisdom. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968. "When a mysterious man claims to be their uncle and acquires court custody, Tia and Tony, aware of his evil intent, run away to prevent him from enslaving their unusual powers and to try to find someone who may know something about them." Walt Disney film adaptation produced by Jerome Courtland, directed by John Hough, 1975.

Key, Alexander. The Forgotten Door. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965. Children from other planets visit the Appalachian mountains. Teacher Guide by Anne Troy and Phyllis A. Green. Palatine, IL : Novel Units, Inc., 1991, 22 pp.

Key, Alexander. Jagger, the Dog from Elsewhere. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976. Set in Alabama, about a dog from another planet.

Key, Alexander. The Preposterous Adventures of Swimmer. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973. "A talking river otter escapes from captivity, experiences perilous adventures with some cruel humans, and resolves the problems of various troubled people and animals." In discussion of Key's Appalachian fantasies, Roberta Herrin calls this story of an otter with human reason and speech "the most distinctly Appalachian though much of it is predictable" ("Appalachian Books for All Children." Now and Then,  vol. 4.1, Spring 1987: p. 34)

Key, Alexander, and Malcolm Marmorstein. Return from Witch Mountain. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978. 144 pp. Sequel to Disney movie. "Tia and Tony's visit to Earth is disrupted when Tony is kidnapped by a power-crazed doctor wishing to use the boy's special powers for his own evil purposes."

Key, Alexander. With Daniel Boone on the Caroliny Trail. New York: Junior Literary Guild, 1941. 223 pp. Biographical fiction written and illustrated by Alexander Key.

Knoop, Faith Yingling. Kuni of the Cherokees. Chattanooga: Harlow, 1957. 230 pp.

L

Laskas, Gretchen. The Miner's Daughter. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. A young adult historical novel by the author of A Midwife's Tale, a highly acclaimed 2003 novel for adults about a young woman who grows up learning midwifery from her mother.

Lawson, John. You Better Come Home with Me. Illus. Arnold Spilka. New York: Crowell, 1966. Roberta Herrin has described this book as a great "blend of fantasy and Appalachian culture....A psychological fantasy...about a young boy's search to know who he is" ("Appalachian Books for All Children." Now and Then,  vol. 4.1, Spring 1987: p. 34).

Lee, Mildred. The People Therein. New York: New American Library, 1980. 240 pp. Roberta T. Herrin has written that this novel "romanticizes" language (in "'Shall We Teach 'Em or Learn 'Em?': Attitudes toward Language in Appalachian Children's Literature." Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association, vol. 3 (1991): p. 193).

Lenski, Lois. Blue Ridge Billy. New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1946. Roberta T. Herrin has written about this novel's "romanticized" use of language from Ashe County, NC (in "'Shall We Teach 'Em or Learn 'Em?': Attitudes toward Language in Appalachian Children's Literature." Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association, vol. 3 (1991): p. 193). The characters don't comment on their own speech but Lenski's approach is a typical attempt to preserve the Elizabethan English of Appalachia, a perspective that is now outdated.

Lenski, Lois. Coal Camp Girl. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1959. "Nine-year-old Tina Wilson who lives in a West Virginia coal town where life is full of difficulties–mine accidents and work shortages–learns about hunger and hardship but also courage and hope."

Leppard, Lois Gladys. Mandie and the Medicine Man. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 1986.

Lowry, Lois. Rabble Starkey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. "Many things change for twelve-year-old Rabble Starkey, her mother, and her best friend, Veronica Bigelow when Veronica's mother becomes mentally incapacitated and the Starkeys move in with the Bigelows." Set in a small town in WV.

Lynn, Jodi. Glory. New York: Puffin Books, 2003. "Thirteen-year-old Glory Mason's questioning and spirited nature makes life difficult for her in the conservative West Virginia Christian community that is her home and leads to consequences which threaten her survival." As narrator, Glory tells of her love for her beautiful, communal tiny town, as well as her difficulties with following its rules and rigid gender roles as her father expects her to start acting like a woman. Her beautiful, loyal friend Katie has a loving mother who tells the girls about living in Boston before her marriage, while other members of this isolated community have never seen society outside Dogwood or used modern conveniences. Citizens who commit serious offenses are, at the vote of the community, forgiven and allowed to do penance, or cast out forever. On Christmas Eve Glory makes a terrible mistake that changes the lives all their lives and separates her from her home. The later part of the novel depicts her efforts to survive alone in the winter woods and her first friendship outside Dogwood. The sequels (same publisher and date) include Shadow Tree, named after a town where Glory stays for a while, Forget Me Not, and Blue Girl. After making it to Boston, Glory struggles with school, a foster home, illness and friendship.  

Lyon, George Ella. Gina. Jamie. Father. Bear. New York: Atheneum/Richard Jackson, 2002.  This novel's short chapters alternate between two points of view. Gina is a contemporary high school girl in Shaker Heights, Ohio whose mother leaves the family to live with a man in the mountains of North Carolina. Jamie is a boy who lives with his two sisters and father in another dimension, in an ancient or timeless world of folktales such as "Whitebear Whittington." The novel focuses on the quests of Gina, Jamie, and the fathers. The children and fathers seek individual healing and family unity. Cars, workers at McDonalds, and telephones with caller ID help characters mysteriously find each other in the modern world. In the end Gina's psychic experiences have a profound effect on both families, leaving her to ponder the unfathomable relations between past and present, life and death, the worlds of dreams and everyday consciousness. See more on this book in Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction and Lyon's web site.

Lyon, George Ella. Here and Then. New York: Orchard, 1994. A time-travel story about the Civil War. See AppLit's bibliography for details.

Lyon, George Ella. Borrowed Children. Rpt. New York: U Press of Kentucky, 1999. See AppLit's bibliography for details.

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McKenna, Colleen O'Shaughnessy. The Brightest Light. New York: Scholastic, 1992. Set in Romney, West Virginia. "A young West Virginia girl becomes involved in the problems of the family for whom she babysits."

Madden, Kerry. Gentle's Holler. New York: Viking, 2005. A novel focusing on one girl in a large family in Maggie Valley, NC at the beginning of the 1960s. See the author's fascinating web site, Kerry Madden.com, for details and music to accompany the songs that the protagonist makes up for herself. Livy Two tells about her older sister who died at birth (Livy One), the arrival and acceptance of the wiener dog Uncle Hazard, the children's building of his doghouse called the Pinecone Palace, dangerous encounters with lost children and hornets, the family's painful realization that the toddler Gentle can't see, her father's song writing and struggles to get jobs in the music business, learning to get along better with her grandmother, her brother Emmett's desire to go off and work at the new Ghost Town in the Sky, his discovery of their estranged uncle at the mountaintop amusement park, visiting the bookmobile and its kind librarian in Maggie Valley, singing at a folk festival, and a family disaster at the end of the novel.

Madden, Kerry. Jessie's Mountain. New York: Viking, 2008. Third novel in the trilogy about the Weems family.