Littlejim

Read the most by: boys and girls

Littlejim wants his father's love and respect -- more than anything.

Littlejim Houston is the best student in his rural North Carolina school and a tremendous help to his mother and sisters around the family's farm. But that's not good enough for Bigjim, Littlejim's father. He wants his son to cut timber, work in the fields, and hunt, just like he does. When Littlejim enters an essay contest on "What it means to be an American," he hopes to win. Maybe then Bigjim will approve. Set in Appalachia during World War I, this realistic story about family and small-town life introduces a boy young readers will remember for a long, long time.