Two intertwined story threads create the fabric of this tale set in the mid-’60s, with the Vietnam War building up and Cape Canaveral offering astronauts as heroes for children in need of them. A little boy and his dog are arrested on their way to the Cape, and a family known as “the hillbillies of Hog’s Hollow” lives out their dreams. Flo River sees herself as a latter-day Scarlett O’Hara and is writing a saga of the Old South. Older son Beau dreams of being an astronaut, and brother Danny only wants a dog. Old Man River builds a fallout shelter to protect his family in case the Vietnam War brings the end of everything, but doesn’t realize that, instead, he is creating the scene of a great tragedy that will alter their lives. Lively prose, quirky characters and strong dialogue animate this moving story of a family and a boy, and an astronaut who sees the whole world as a miracle, with “more to it all than any one person can ever understand.” (afterword, acknowledgments) (Fiction. 9-14)
