Moving Mama to Town - Softcover

Young, Ronder Thomas

3.74

27 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440414555 ISBN 13: 9780440414551

Publisher: Yearling, 1998

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Freddy James Johnson becomes the man of the family when his daddy Big Kenny runs off. Freddy James knows he must keep his family together, and moves his Mama and little brother Kenneth Lee to town. He soon gets a job at Fenton Calhoun's saloon and rents rooms for his family from Miss Precious Doolittle. As the days go by, Freddy James gains strength by working hard and learning from the people he meets. He'll need that strength as he faces a challenge that will change his life forever.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From Booklist:

Gr. 5-8. Big Kenny has left his Georgia home without explanation, but he has left a deep impression on his son Fred. Big Kenny gave "wonderful long and confusing answers that made sudden, clear sense at the end," and Fred has taken his advice to heart on matters small (pumping hands "at least three times" in a handshake) and large ("No harm in taking your own sweet time in trusting anybody"). Now 13, Fred decides to move his mama and younger brother into town so that he can get a job; he approaches the business of getting hired and finding a place to stay in a characteristically methodical way. First, he persuades Fenton Calhoun to hire him at his saloon. Then he rents a room from the town's self-appointed matriarch, Miss Precious, and just in time, too, because it seems Big Kenny had gambled away the family farm before he left. Fred, who is constantly sizing up the world around him, begins to perceive his father's weaknesses but never becomes disillusioned, taking all his gathered information to build himself into a stronger young man. Secondary characters such as Dorothea, the "colored" cook, and Miss Susannah Doolittle, who teaches French to the town ladies, add great texture. The first-person narrative swings with a southern cadence, using unexpected turns of language to express the most mundane events (when someone snickers at Fred, he says, "I screw my feet in tighter"). The writing, though beautiful, is never intrusive, and Fred may be a little too faultless, but he is a strong-hearted, endearing character in this touching story of a boy who takes his choices in life most seriously. Susan Dove Lempke

From Kirkus Reviews:

From Young (Learning By Heart, 1993), the credible, often tender story of Freddy James Johnson, 13, who takes on the responsibility of holding his family together when his daddy, Big Kenny, runs off. Freddy's first step is to move his mother and his little brother, Kenneth Lee, off their hardscrabble farm and into town where he takes a 45›-an-hour job at Fenton Calhoun's saloon, performing back-breaking chores. The town doyenne, Miss Precious Doolittle, likes Freddy's gumption and rents part of one of her houses to his family. The farm is sold to pay Big Kenny's gambling debts and the Johnsons start to understand that their new life is permanent. When a former farmhand, Custis Fulbright, offers to drive the family to Charleston to visit Mama's parents, Freddy--disliking Custis's too-familiar ways--refuses to go; Mama and Kenneth Lee join Custis and she subsequently dies in a car accident. As a picture of small-town Southern life in 1947, the book is fascinating; Young evokes the sights, sounds, and scents of the place and gives each scene immediacy. Every character is perfectly drawn, with the exception of Mama: Her haste in taking up with Custis is full of contradictions; her death makes all of Freddy's efforts to hold the family together abruptly moot. Still, this is a fine novel, informed by its protagonist's clear sense of right and wrong, and a work ethic that assures his future success. (Fiction. 9-13) -- Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.