4. A Month of Sundays - Ruth White

2011, Margaret Ferguson Books, Farrar Straus Giroux
168 pgs.
Written for middle grades
Hmph.  Probably shouldn't rate it right now when I'm perturbed with the author.  What's wrong with having a feel-good book once in awhile?  It was like everything was turning out TOO well, so Ms. White decided to end it with a little tragedy.  It was an entirely enjoyable read all the way through until the last 10 pages.  I'm not happy.

Setting:  1957 Black River, Virgina.....Appalachia.
OSS:  When Garnet's mother goes to Florida to make a better life for the two of them, she leaves Garnet with an aunt and uncle that she's never known, finding that having a loving family is pretty special.
The title: Garnet accompanies her Aunt June each Sunday to a different area church while her aunt "searches for God." Good, suitable title.
1st sentence/s:  "Before I was born fourteen years ago, my dad, August Rose, left my mom, Betty Rose, for a carnival singer."

Garnet's unsuspecting aunt and uncle are kind to her, they are quite well off and Garnet has always been incredibly poor.  The grandfather ("Poppy") who never knew she existed is thrilled that he has a granddaughter, and she even finds a good-looking beau.  There's some good looks into what I've always considered "holy roller" churches, the laying of hands, speaking in tongues, tent revivals, baptism in the river, and even faith healing, but the reader is allowed to look and sample and think for themselves.  There's preaching but it's not preachy.

There are also some lines from some old familiar hymns quoted.  It's written so that I could, at times, put myself right into the kitchen with the rest of the family.  I liked it a lot.  Except for the last ten pages.  If there was going to be a tragedy, I would have liked it not thrown in at the very last minute, more towards the middle perhaps????  Darn, darn, darn.