"Blue Willow," by Doris Gates.
If I had only one book that I could take in my backpack to heaven, this would be it. Not Shakespeare, not the Bible, but "Blue Willow."
It's the story of an itinerant family in the 1930s. The little girl, Janey, is a shy, wondering, respectful child. She is entranced by the house, bridge and stream pictured on a piece of blue willow china and longs to live in such a place.
In one passage where Janey describes her aloof mother it shows she is wise almost beyond her years. The book was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1940.
Linda M. Mainquist, St. Paul
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