Ernestine's Milky Way
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
An empowering picture book set in the 1940s about a determined five-year-old girl who embarks on a journey to deliver milk to her neighbors in the holler.
Every morning, Ernestine shouts out her window to the Great Smoky Mountains, "I'm five years old and a big girl!" When Mama asks Ernestine--who helps with chores around the farm while Papa is away at war--to carry two mason jars filled with milk to their neighbor, Ernestine isn't sure she can do it. After all, she'd need to walk through thickets of crabapple and blackberry by the creek, not to mention past vines of climbing bittersweet. But Ernestine is five years old and a big girl, so off she sets. Along the way, one mason jar slips from her arms and rolls down the mountainside into the river, and Ernestine is sure it's lost forever . . . until her neighbor's son shows up with a muddy jar--and there's a surprise inside! With tons of flavor and a can-do spirit, here is a celebration of American history and a plucky girl who knows that helping a family in need is worth the trouble.
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Ernestine and her Mama live on a valley farm within view of the Great Smoky Mountains. Ernestine's father is off fighting in WWII and Mama's expecting twins, so when their neighbor Mrs. Ramsey asks for milk for her children, delivering it is up to Ernestine. Though she's strong-minded ("I'm five years old and a big girl," she likes to say), it's a daunting journey. "You'll have to walk through the thickets of crabapple and blackberry by the creek," Ernestine's mother tells her, "and through the barbed-wire fence." Madden-Lunsford (Gentle's Holler) blends mild suspense ("she heard a snuffa-snuffa-snufflin' along the path") with relief and then triumph especially when the jar of milk Ernestine thinks she's lost is found and yields a treat. Thoughtful and precise ink-and-watercolor artwork by Sutton (Lots: The Diversity of Life on Earth) shows Ernestine toiling along the path through the varied landscapes her mother has described, with scrub, trees, dense foliage, distant hills, and foraging creatures (none dangerous). The homespun tale gracefully highlights themes of living off the land, helping neighbors, and conquering fear and the delights of dairy in Mason jars. Ages 3 7. Author's)
