Where you come from isn’t who you are
“Riveting. An achingly beautiful tale told with a singularly fresh and original voice.”
—Jocelyn Green, award-winning author of the Heroines Behind the Lines Civil War series
Ten-year-old Pearl doesn’t understand a lot of things—why her sister’s brain doesn’t work right, why the preacher yells so much, why Jesus and the president seem to have forgotten all about Oklahoma. But she does know who she is: Pearl Spence, daughter of the esteemed town sheriff. Generous and always ready to help in a crisis, the Spences bring hope to this desolate town, and Pearl is proud of her family. She knows who she is, she knows she is loved, and even in unrelenting hardship, life feels secure. Not even the dust that sweeps incessantly across Red River can quench her hopes and dreams.
But someone else seems to know who she is, too, and he makes Pearl uneasy. From the moment the mysterious hobo steps off the train and stares at her with his cold blue eyes, Pearl’s secure world begins to unravel. How does Eddie know her name? Why does he seem to hover everywhere she turns? And why does he act like he knows something about her family that she doesn’t? Pearl is determined to avoid him, but Eddie is bent on forcing his way into her life and disrupting her family’s shaky tranquility. The more he badgers Pearl, the greater her confusion, until the storm within her rivals the swirling of dust and dirt without.
“The author does a great job of giving the reader a feel for those dark days in our nation’s history. Very intriguing reading!”
—Virgil Dwain McNeil, a Dust Bowl survivor
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Sexual Content - 1/5
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Violence - 0/5
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Language - 0/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 1/5
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Summary
From: Rebecca Maney
Book Title: A Cup of Dust
Book Author: Susie Finkbeiner
What do you like about this book:
"Someday you might learn that life isn't what you always thought it was. You'll learn how hard truth can hurt."
The folks in Red River, Oklahoma were barely surviving what we now refer to as the "Dust Bowl" years. Pearl Spence and her family were no exception, except that her father's small salary as the town sheriff put food on their table, and thanks to her mother's generosity, also put food on the table of many others in the dying town.
Living with her parents, her grandmother, and her mentally challenged sister, Pearl sees the world through a cloud of dust that continually swirls, but eventually settles. It's when a blue-eyed, wretched, hobo of a man comes to town that everything changes. He knows Pearl's name and asks her strange questions like, " . . .Does it ever feel like you're somewhere you don't belong?" And, "Do you ever get the feeling that you ain't who you always thought you were?"
" A Cup of Dust" is a story filled a tempest of triumphs and defeats, tempered with stout determination and compassion, creatively displayed in the life story of a ten year old little girl, Pearl Spence, who loves fiercely and is loved unconditionally.
Your ratings of the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use on a scale of 1-5.
Sex:0
Violence:1
Language:0
Drug/Alcohol use:1