Addie, a small-town girl from deep in the heartland of America, begins her story in 1915 as wheat prices are booming. She shares the day-to-day unfolding of her life and the life of her family as they deal with the turbulent US economy of the 1920s and 1930s. During this period the price of wheat drops, followed by precipitous declines in stocks, minerals and farmland. The story ends in 1935 as the family grapples with the effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Addie s vivid memories transport the reader back to the hardscrabble life that was typical for rural Americans of her generation. Throughout it all, Addie offers a true and fair chronicle of daily life. She invites readers to come to their own conclusions about people, events and what constitutes the good life.
In the process, Addie of the Flint Hills weaves a complex tale of ordinary folks struggling with familiar themes: a father s work takes him far from home, a highly- educated woman and mother is alone, and a young girl never learns that she is beautiful. As we follow her adventures, we watch a shy and self-effacing young woman, one who has no idea of her true inner and outer beauty, finally come into her own. For her part, Addie has learned that with age comes acceptance and insight, and sometimes, even, a bit of wisdom. The final chapters will melt your heart.
Golden girl: that was Amanda. Born into luxury, she was pampered, adored, spoiled, and very beautiful. She could have had any man she wanted. Millionaire Tom Merrill had been in love with her for years. But she chose Dart, tall, handsome, mining engineer. He was half-Indian, proud, and very poor. 
“We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful” is the motto of Deza Malone’s family.
On January 1, 1935, Rose Samuels bids good riddance to a dry, desolate year and begins a new one. The severe drought has left the fields too dry for crops and the farms are all failing. Times are tough, but with hope, love, and determination, Rose and her family manage to turn the year around.
It’s 1935 and from a child’s eye view, the hard times of the Depression era are becoming more and more real. Each day, coming home from school, there is something else missing. First the sow pig, then the cow, then the truck. On one wrenching day the beloved hunting dog is sold. Finally the whole family packs up in the car and leaves—the children wonder where, but their parents are silent. Suddenly, the car stops at the edge of the road and Mother leans into the back seat, giving Mary Jake a handkerchief with something tied inside and the instructions to walk down the path into the forest, take the LEFT fork into town, and present the handkerchief at the stone house.
Eleven-year-old Margo Bandini has never been afraid of anything. Her life in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with Mama and Papa and her little brother, Charlie, has always felt secure. But it’s 1933, and the Great Depression is changing things for families all across America.
The 1930s in America will always be remembered for twin disasters-the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Michael L. Cooper takes readers through this tumultuous period, beginning with the 1929 stock market crash that ushered in the Great Depression and continuing with the severe drought in the Midwest, known as the Dust Bowl. He chronicles the everyday struggle for survival by those who lost everything, as well as the mass exodus westward to California on fabled Route 66. The crisis also served as a turning point in American domestic policy, prompting the establishment of programs, such as welfare and Social Security, that revolutionized the role of the federal government. Vivid personal anecdotes from figures such as John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie, and an extensive selection of photographs by Dorothea Lange and others, illuminate the individuals who faced poverty, illness, and despair as they coped with this extraordinary challenge. Endnotes, bibliography, Internet resources, index.
Esperanza thought she’d always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico–she’d always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, and servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn’t ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances–Mama’s life, and her own, depend on it.
To Janey Larkin, the blue willow plate was the most beautiful thing in her life, a symbol of the home she could only dimly remember. Now that her father was an itinerant worker, Janey didn’t have a home she could call her own or any real friends, as her family had to keep moving, following the crops from farm to farm. Someday, Janey promised the willow plate, with its picture of a real house, her family would once again be able to set down roots in a community.
Deals with the crucial period from 1917 to 1960
