KIRKUS REVIEW
No Beulah Land, but a much smaller scaled story out of the Depression South about Orphan Jim, seven when his Mama dies. . . and a black whore Hazel with a heart of gold. . . and stop me or Mr. Coleman if you've heard this one only he'll sneak it right past you. Orphan Jim (well that's what his sister Trudy, thirteen, calls him) and Trudy both hit the road out of Pluma, Alabama, toward Montgomery where they have some mean-spirited relatives who'll put them in a Home so they leave and only Hazel, visited weekly by her white married railroad man Mr. Harris, takes them in and lets them stay. Jim goes to school, Trudy pays their way working in a store, and when Mr. Harris dies real sudden--the youngsters have made it on their own. Coleman gloves the sentimental hard knocks and it's all as natural and unexpected and sunny as a dandelion on some forgotten back road.