COME NEXT SPRING CL [Hardcover]

Alana J White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 23, 1990 | Age Level: 10 and up

In 1949, in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, Salina struggles to accept the inevitability of change--a highway cutting through farmland, a brother and sister starting their own lives, and nothing left in common with her best friend.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the Tennessee mountains in 1949, this first novel recounts the events of Salina Harris's 12th year. After a summer on her family's farm, Salina is looking forward to the eighth grade, but the school year brings a series of unexpected and often unwelcome changes. Put off by her best friend's newly acquired snobby attitude, Salina discovers a companion in Scooter, a quiet girl from an impoverished family. Meanwhile, plans for a new highway threaten to disrupt the tranquility of Salina's village. Although the girl prefers the old ways to the new, she comes to recognize the advantages of progress and learns to accept her inability to predict or control the future. This smoothly written narrative offers realistic characterizations and a perceptive glimpse of small-town life. Readers will sympathize with Salina's growing pains and be moved by the novel's many tender moments. Ages 9-13.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-9-- Salina Harris, 12, lives with her family on a farm in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The year is 1949, a year in which Salina learns about change. The war has brought changes to her small community, including the returning widow and children of a neighbor who was killed overseas. One of these children, Scooter Russell, is so confident and opinionated that Salina takes an instant dislike to her. Salina's friendship with Mayella Crenshaw begins to unravel as their values and interests change, and her relationship with her brother slackens due to his attention to a weak colt. Salina resists all of these changes with all of the ardor of young adolescence but, with the help of loving parents and a teacher who challenge her to see a larger picture, she comes to a kind of acceptance. The events of the story are interwoven into a quiet portrait of mountain life at mid-century. Salina is a wonderfully drawn character, by turns judgmental and considerate, hotheaded and thoughtful. Her favorite novel, Gone With the Wind, is used throughout the story to highlight the theme. Gradually, as she comes to find friendship with Scooter and to understand her family and neighbors better, she realizes that change is inevitable, and that she will be able to accept it. --Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 170 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; First Edition edition (April 23, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395525934
• ISBN-13: 978-0395525937
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,913,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful coming of age story, July 2, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: Come Next Spring (Paperback)

What a lovely book! The setting is 1949 in the mountains of Tennessee, and I especially liked the connections made with the novel, Gone With the Wind. The main character of CNS believes in happy endings; her friend does not. That leads to many arguments about Rhett and Scarlett...with a surprising end.