SEMIPRECIOUS

When her birthday present is a vacuum cleaner rather than a guitar, Garnet Hubbard’s mother loses control. As her father returns to his job, drilling oil in the Gulf of Mexico, her mother uproots Garnet (13) and her older sister, Opal, from their Texas community, unloads them with their Aunt Julia in Willow Flats, Okla. and sets off to make it big in Nashville. It’s the early 1960s and although Garnet lives in a house with no phone, car or television, she is aware of the changes happening in society. The teen reacts with the help of her bohemian art teacher, possibly a Communist, who introduces her students to such Mexican muralists as David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. Her Aunt Julia, her aunts’ spirited friends and Opal help Garnet move from anger and sadness to acceptance of an imperfect mother and the nature of dreams and family. Tugging at the heart with painful truths and a girl who finds both sorrow and wonderment in them, this is Love’s best yet. (author’s note) (Fiction. 11-14)