ON VINEY’S MOUNTAIN

Foreigners are coming to 16-year-old Viney Walker’s home in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee. Arriving from England in 1880 to establish Rugby, a Christian Social Community where young men hope to buy land and be treated equally, these flatlanders are grading new roads, trampling her wildflowers and luring her pretty sister Lizzie into town. But as much as Viney loves her mountain way of life, especially her weaving, she is drawn to Charlie Breckenridge, a handsome English man with gentian blue eyes. The jacket copy likens this historical romance to Jane Austen, and it is funny, poignant and always centered on whether or not Viney and Charlie will get together. Viney and her mountain ridge are beautifully realized, the prose full of well-researched details of flora and fauna, though a bit heavy handed with similes. The first-person point of view is just right for getting into the mind of this homespun girl with dirt under her fingernails and grit in her spirit. Readers will come to love feisty Viney and cheer her on. (Historical fiction. 10 & up)