Synopsis
In 1947, his head filled with the advice and wisdom of his runaway father, thirteen-year-old Freddy moves his mother from their Georgia farm into town and takes on the challenge of holding his family together
Reviews
Grade 6-9. It is 1947 in rural Georgia, and 13-year-old Freddy James Johnson's father has run off, leaving him, his mother, and his younger brother, Kenneth Lee, destitute. Freddy has grown up listening to his father's platitudes about manhood and responsibility, and he proves he has been a good listener. Borrowing a neighbor's old truck, the boy drives to the small, sleepy town of Elderton and secures a run-down apartment plus an all-purpose errand-boy job at a tawdry saloon. The big event of the summer is a barbecue for which Freddy has dug a huge pit on the saloon's grounds. Custis Fullbright, a would-be replacement for Big Kenny in Mama's affections, shows up at the event and offers to drive the Johnsons to visit Mama's parents in South Carolina. Even the lure of the ocean is not sufficient to overcome Freddy's distaste for and distrust of Custis. The journey ends in tragedy, adding yet another loss for Freddy. Young has a fine ear for regional speech and creates a strong and positive sense of time and place. Freddy is a likable hero who is forced to grow up way too soon, yet he approaches every day of his life with renewed vigor and a strong sense of always doing the right thing. Where Big Kenny was all big talk but a little man in truth, his son is a young man who quietly grows in stature before readers' eyes.?Jerry D. Flack, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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.
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
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