Synopses & Reviews
When eleven-year-old Katy Sue loses her mother to meningitis, she struggles to define her place in the family. With the guidance of her teacher, Mrs. Breton, Katy Sue begins to contemplate the shape of her family and her home through drawing, a process that allows her to accept life without her mother and to find her own role.
Synopsis
When eleven-year-old Katy Sue loses her mother to meningitis, she begins to contemplate the shape of her family and their farm through drawing, a process that allows her to accept life without her mother and to find her own role.
Synopsis
When eleven-year-old Katy Sue loses her mother to meningitis, she and her family must adjust to life without her. The rural farm in the 1940s provides a natural backdrop that is rhythmic and routine but unforgiving, even when a family member dies. The house's emptiness is filled only when her Aunt Katherine comes to the family's aid, as does Jake, a family friend. Katy Sue, the youngest of the three children, struggles to understand what the loss of her mother means for her now. With the guidance of her teacher, she begins to imagine her future through drawing, a process that allows her to accept her father's soon-to-be wife, the farm life without her mother, and, eventually, her own role within the family.