THE MINER'S DAUGHTER
By Gretchen Moran Laskas
Perhaps there is always a mark when another person touches you, an invisible thread connecting you to them.
Backbreaking work, threadbare clothes, and black coal dust choking the air — this is what a miner's daughter knows. Willa Lowell fears that this dust marks her to be nothing else, that she will never win against the constant struggle to survive. Even the fierce flame of her family's love — her one bright spot against the darkness - has begun to dim.
There's her mother's difficult pregnancy and the new baby to worry over. West Virginia has been hit hard by the Depression and work has ground almost to a halt, starving those already hungry. In an election year filled with promises from Mr. Roosevelt, the whole country seems on the brink of something grand and dangerous, and Willa's brother Ves is caught up in the storm.
Willa yearns for a better life — enough food to eat, clothes that fit and a home free of black grit. She also yearns for a special love, the love of a boy who makes her laugh and shares the poetry she carries in her heart.
When a much brighter future is suddenly promised to her family, Willa knows it is a miracle ... until she discovers that every promise has a price. But she also discovers that the real change has burned inside her all along — if only she is strong enough to mine it.
In a style that is as breathtaking and lyrical as it is powerful, Gretchen Moran Laskas draws from her family’s past to bring to life the story of a girl struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds. THE MINER’S DAUGHTER will touch readers’ hearts and minds.
"In The Miner’s Daughter, Gretchen Laskas brings to life a harsh and real – yet beautiful – world that is nothing less than fascinating." Cynthia Kadohata, author of the Newbery winner Kira-Kira.
"The 1932 West Virginia setting is beautifully realized, historical details never overwhelming a story that succeeds in putting a human face on poverty, prejudice and dreams. Rooted in Laskas's own family history, this is a fine coming-of-age story…" Kirkus Reviews