Plot: When her father dies, fourteen-year-old Mary Call does her stubborn best to take care of her brother and sisters. She refuses to allow the family to be separated into foster homes, instead discovering creative ways to make and save money. Even so, they barely scrape by and trouble after trouble piles up for Mary Call as bitter winter nears.
Comments: This was alike to an adventure novel with a tint of sadness. Mary Call is a beautifully strong and independent young woman and I enjoyed the sharp-tongued retorts she directed towards a stingy man named Kiser. I also appreciated Mary Call's devotion to education and her understanding of its importance. Mary Call wanted her family to be respectable and she worked hard to maintain order and a sense of pride. Her brother and sisters did not understand this at first but eventually accepted Mary Call's rigid standards of living.
There were a lot of detailed descriptions in this story but I'm afraid I skipped over quite a bit of that. I have no patience for pages of scenery. But I could tell that the mountains on which they were living were very beautiful and could imagine the serenity of nature's beauty contrasting sharply with Mary Call and her struggling family. The ending was rather abrupt and felt very strange, not at all like a conclusion. It left something to be desired. However, after having read the story I felt I had learned a bit about determination, sticking together no matter what and always finding a way out.
Rating: I rate this book a seven out of ten.
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