FIRE IN THE HILLS

After the death of her mother, Hallie, 16, is left to care for the house and seven siblings, including the newborn, Pearly. Living on an Oklahoma farm during the first world war with a taciturn father is hard, and the departure of her beloved older brother for the army leaves her even more alone and desolate. Then Hallie comes between some vicious town rednecks and a draft dodger hiding in the hills. Too often strong heroines come with the words strong heroine tattooed across their foreheads. In a novel of exceptional power and grit, Hallie is the true article; her strength comes from character, guts, and necessity. Myers (Graveyard Girl, 1995, etc.) lays out the details of Hallie's difficult life sparingly, without sentimentality, and the result is very nearly inspirational. Not since Red-Dirt Jessie (1992) has the author written so compellingly of a young person determined to beat the odds. (Fiction. 12+)