Otherwise Known As Possum

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Book Information

Category
Realistic/Contemporary Fiction
Reader Personality Type
Publisher
Scholastic 2017
Careful Content?
Curriculum
Social Emotional Learning

Here is a book that has a remarkable character named Possum Porter. She's eleven years old. Life is about to kick her in the pants. 

Eleven-year-old Possum Porter’s world makes sense because of her Daddy, her dog, Trav, and her best friend, Tully. It's 1932 in the heart of Appalachia in Possum's world. Momma used to be the center ofof thatworld. Momma who loved to watch the night come and Momma who taught Possum what she needed to learn instead of sending her off for schooling is gone. The earth is fresh on the graves of Momma and Baby.

Possum is one lively young lady who reaches into herself over and over again to outwit the local old Crows and self-important girls at school.

But, life doesn’t stay still for anybody. Possum’s life is about to start to look like a tilt-a-whirl with her father just maybe falling for the new school teacher, her best friend falling for someone unexpected and Possum herself having to put on a pair of shoes and walk to school day after day even though she knows her mother never, ever would have sent her.

Possum fights to hold on to what she has known. If her father moves on, it will be as though her momma was never there at all and Possum just can’t let that happen. 

So, battles are about to be waged and Possum is going to look for help and understanding from whomever in her community has something she can hold onto whether it’s Jump Justice, the good looking young feller with the green eyes, his mother or her granny. 

This is a lively, humorous coming of age story about a girl in the hollows whose life is turning itself inside out and she is trying to figure out how she still matters and where she fits in among all the changes and the new directions.

It’s so good to read about a girl whose life hasn’t been easy but who has herself to rely on time and time again. Anything Possum can’t give herself is right there in Trav, her dog, who is always by her side and on her side. This Possum is willing to venture into some new territory on her own terms. It’s wonderful to walk with her and feel her spunk. . Laugh out loud, reassuring, galloping story about life and change and the good things that come from both.

978-054592795  240 pages  Ages 8-12

Recommended by:  Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com

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