Customer Reviews

Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different

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Autumn Winifred Oliver lives "in a small speck of a town" in the Smoky Mountains, back when church bells tolled to tell you someone died, rather than an IM pinging on a Blackberry. This book is a lot of fun if you are a fan of Richard Peck, Sterling North, Deborah Wiles and Francis O'Roark Dowell. Autumn is a spunky, spirited youngster with a strong will and a loving family, doing her chores, making friends, learning to roller skate and generally growing up in a quieter and less hectic time.

Autumn Winifred Oliver uses any means necessary (including a stick of dynamite stolen from the U.S. government) to try to save her hometown from becoming a national park. Kristin O'Donnell Tubb's debut novel entertains with laugh out loud humor while teaching a history lesson about the development of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Fans of Richard Peck's novels should enjoy this book.

A wonderful and unique read for middle grade girls and boys, fans of Tennessee, US history, or the National Parks, or anyone who likes to "do things different!" Plucky heroine Autumn keeps the reader guessing what her next move will be in as she tries to save her Cades Cove home. Tubb works in tons of Tennessee and US history, but readers will be too entertained to realize how much they're learning. Her authentic characters, hilarious plot twists, and sense of place make for a satisfying read for all ages.

Autumn Winifred Oliver has a lot going on for an 11-year-old living in the tiny, mountain settlement of Cades Cove, Tennessee. She's waiting to move with her mom and big sister Katie to Knoxville, where her dad already lives and works. She'll miss the beautiful mountains she lives in, but in the 1930s the "big city" offers the allure of indoor plumbing, movie theaters and automobiles, all nearly non-existent in her neck of the woods. Everybody says she does things different, and she keeps reminding herself of that as she gets herself in and out of several pickles.

First, she hears the church bells toll her reputed death--they always toll the number of years for the recently departed, and she's the only one around who is 11 when she hears them ring. Then she finds out her grandpa almost died, and her mom has decided Knoxville can wait while she moves into his cabin in the woods to help care for him.

There's also more activity than usual in Cades Cove, a settlement that's totally cut off from the outside world each winter when the only road in gets covered in snow. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is being created right on the edge of town, and everyone is abuzz about raking in money from tourists. But Autumn Winifred Oliver suspects that everything is not as it seems with the park, and she won't rest until she finds out the real story.

Autumn is a delightful character with a down to earth voice, and through her eyes we see the beauty of the mountains, streams and countryside around her home. She is placed within the real story of Cades Cove, Tennessee, and the creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You'll be charmed by the folk tales, old-time remedies and superstitions woven seamlessly by author Kristin O'Donnell Tubb throughout the story. This is her debut novel, and I hope to see more books from her in the years to come. Moms and daughters alike will fall in love with Autumn and her way of looking at the world. I highly recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged nine and up.

Normally, I don't read that much middle grade books, but I made an exception and I'm very glad I did. Autumn is a very awesome character and hilariously creative. Not only is she down to earth, she's spunky and surpriingly relatable even though she's from a different time period.
Though a little bit slow in some parts, it made up for it by having a wide range of characters varying from the most interesting personalities. Autumn is not the only character that grabs your attention, Autumn's grouchy but awesome grandfather makes me wish he was a part of my family and so many others that are special in their own way.

Packed with southern charm and originality, Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different earns a solid 4 stars. It's one-of-a-kind story will make it memorable for a very, very long time.

Autumn is proud of how she does things that aren't necessarily what others do. She's excited about moving to the city of Knoxville. But then Gramps gets ill and her mother tells both her and her sister they have to stay. Gramps is up to something with the whole national park and Autumn is determined to find out.

I LOVE this character! Autumn is so down to earth and spunky. The charm of the Appalachians rings true in this story. I laughed at Autumn's attics and loved the portrayal of this family.

The issue of the takeover of private land to make a national park is an important one, and here it's told through the voice of Autumn Winifred Oliver. Autumn is a tough, resourceful and utterly believable character. With humor and sympathy, Kristin Tubb shows Autumn's struggle to adapt to the loss of her home and her fight to preserve what is important to her. Minor characters are deftly portrayed--they add to the story without taking it over, and Autumn's interaction with them, especially with Gramps, show us her personality and propel the story to a bittersweet but satisfying conclusion. The dialogue is beautifully rendered and the setting lovingly described. But it's the story of Autumn and her friends and family that will stay with the reader.

Most folks wouldn't shove sticks in the beaks of geese to keep them from eating in their gardens, but Autumn Winifred Oliver does things different. In a mountain town so tiny it only has one road leading in and out, different is something folks in Autumn's parts don't always cotton to. But sometimes it takes a special kind of thinking to make things change, which is the one thing Autumn craves more than anything. Change.

Autumn seems to have a lot in common with Gramps, who's determined to convince the thirty families in Cades Cove to sign papers that will allow a new national park to border their little town. Convinced that there's more to Gramps' idea than just collecting money from passing tourists, Autumn sets out to find the truth, only to find much more than she'd bargained for, including more approaching change than she could have imagined.

With a setting that jumps to life, debut author Kristin O'Donnell Tubb tells the story of Cades Cove through strong character voices intertwined with glorious description:

"The trees had turned into a showy blaze of orange and red and yellow bursts - miniature suns, each one. Those durn trees! They put on this spectacle every year, and I swannee they get better at it with practice."

Historical fiction can sometimes be off-putting to middle grade readers, but the author handles this one so deftly, it's not immediately obvious the book is set during the Great Depression. By the time the subject comes up, Autumn has hooked the audience and is off and running.

Adventures and folktales carry us through Autumn's story as she and her neighbors come to terms with the fact that Cades Cove is about to change forever, one way or another. Readers will appreciate the unique last rites of the small town's traditions and ways of life as they give way to modernization, progress, and change.

A one-of-a-kind, carefully crafted story with a life of its own.

Reviewed by: Julie M. Prince

This is a great book for teens and pre-teens. The story and characters are memorable and the backdrop of the Great Smoky Mountains really brings the story to life, especially if you have ever been in Cades Cove. To read this book, you'd think Ms. Tubb was actually there during the time period in which it takes place...excellent attention to detail.