SEND NO BLESSINGS

A realistic chronicle of a 15-year-old West Virginian's dreams and aspirations. Beth is trapped and worn out by her mother's "blessings"—the seven younger children who also share the family trailer with her parents. Beth makes plastic flowers to earn money, but knows her fingers were meant to fly over typewriter keys: best in the class, she hopes to become a typist when she graduates, perhaps leaving West Virginia for good. Then her dad brings home high-school dropout Harless Prather; Beth comes to love him, but he's 22 and ready to settle down to give Beth a life like her mother's. With yet another sibling on the way, Beth's choice means identifying a different kind of blessing for her own life—despite her father's stern, unaccountable intention that she leave school at 16. Naylor continues to surprise old fans and win new ones with her capacity for diversification: this story of homespun truths and genuinely complicated love-knocks is one of her best. Delectable storytelling; notably generous in spirit.