LUDELPHIA ROUNDUP

So I've got a little thing for horses. I love horse stories. In fact, I just read a good one that has me all inspired to write: Wild Girl by Patricia Reilly Giff. Thanks, Lakelynn for putting it in my hands!

Now, about Ludelphia. She's not a horse girl... but that's probably only because there weren't horses in 1932 Gee's Bend. She does, however, have a mule named Delilah. They're good friends. And Lu has other new friends, too, all over the world wide web.

Including the Chicago Tribune, which said "Latham brings the girl, the period and the region to life."

That Ludelphia. Check out these other reviews:

Free Motion Quilting
Hope is the Word snippet and review
For What it's Worth
Book Crazy
Writing Snacks
my take on FATE at Book Lovers Inc.
and Wild Card Wednesday at fellow author Joelle Anthony's (RESTORING HARMONY) blog.

Last but not least, here's what The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books (BCCB) had to say:

Life in 1932 rural Alabama is no picnic for African-American sharecroppers, such as the family of ten-year-old Ludelphia Bennett, who are trying to scrap by on their tiny farm in Gee’s Bend. Ludelphia doesn’t seem to mind her meager surroundings as long as she can sew quilts with her mother, but when Mama falls ill with pneumonia, Ludelphia leaves the only place she has ever known to retrieve lifesaving medicine from a town nearly forty miles away, confronting prejudice and superstition along the way. Based on real people and events, the story rings true with its quiet sense of place, and Ludelphia’s narration echoes the tradition of storytelling in quiltmaking, a nod to the famous Gee’s Bend quilting history. While most of the secondary characters are fairly simple, Ludelphia’s voice carries the reader through a treacherous landscape with determined vibrancy, adding a dash of adventure and mischief to an otherwise harrowing tale. The conclusion is at once happy and realistic—the family knows that even with Mama’s recovery and supplies from the Red Cross, the winter will still be hard—making this an enjoyable piece of fiction about an undertreated bit of American history.

Thank you THANK YOU thank you, all you wonderful readers, you!! If Ludelphia was here she'd make each of you a quilt. :)