Comfort

World War II is over and Ann Fay Honeycut has new challenges—mostly her relationship with her father, home from the war, and the emotional and physical demands of polio. Now that Daddy has returned from fighting Hitler and Ann Fay is home from the polio hospital, life should get back to normal. But Ann Fay discovers she no longer fits easily into old friendships and Daddy has been traumatized by the war. Her family and social life are both falling apart. Ever responsible, she tries to fix things until she finally admits that she herself needs fixing. She travels to the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, founded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, where she finds comfort, healing, and even a little romance. Although this invigorating experience does not solve all her problems, it does give Ann Fay a new view of herself. In this Parents' Choice Awards Recommended Book, sequel to Blue, Ann Fay makes new friends, reevaluates old relationships, and discovers her unique place in the community.

I used to love how that vine with its purple flowers grew on everything. But that was before I was in charge of Daddy's garden. Before I had to cut it back all by myself because Momma was in a bad way about my brother dying and didn't care two cents about the garden just then. At the time, I was so mad at war and polio that I took all my anger out on that vine. And I hadn't been back to Wisteria Mansion since. But now I didn't know where else to go and cry myself a river. So I crawled in under the vines which had grown thicker than ever. I pulled my crutches in behind me. Then I collapsed in the pine needles and let it all out. All the sadness about losing my good life before the war. My frustration with not being able to cross the room without crutches. And misery about not having anyone who knew what it felt like to be me! ——FROM THE BOOK

"In 1945 Hickory, North Carolina, Ann Fay's father is back from the war but she must still rely on her own strength and determination as she faces the problems of her polio-induced disability and her father's failure to get a job. "The themes are big ones--war domestic violence, illness--but Hostetter manages them deftly."--Parents' Choice Awards

"At the conclusion of Blue (Boyds Mills, 2006), Ann Fay Honeycutt's daddy is just back from the war and Ann Fay is learning to deal with her polio. . . . Hostetter's beautiful story about rebuilding, with absorbing back matter about post-traumatic stress disorder and disability rights, is exceptional historical fiction."--School Library Journal

"Contains vivid descriptions of postwar rural America, polio treatment, small-town life, the ravages of war and the importance of family." --Kirkus Reviews

"The best part of Comfort is Hostetter's loving depiction of life in the rural South in the 1940s." --Booklist

"Exceptional historical fiction." --School Library Journal

World War II is over and Ann Fay Honeycut has new challenges - mostly her relationship with her father, home from the war, and the emotional and physical demands of polio.

In the wake of World War II, Ann Fay Honeycut grapples with her father's trauma and the physical and emotional effects of polio--finding healing in the unlikeliest of places

Now that Daddy has returned from fighting Hitler and Ann Fay is home from the polio hospital, life should get back to normal. But Ann Fay discovers she no longer fits easily into old friendships and Daddy has been traumatized by the war. Her family and social life are both falling apart. Ever responsible, she tries to fix things until she finally admits that she herself needs fixing.

She travels to the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, founded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, where she finds comfort, healing, and even a little romance. Although this invigorating experience does not solve all her problems, it does give Ann Fay a new view of herself.

In this Parents' Choice Awards Recommended Book, sequel to Blue, Ann Fay makes new friends, reevaluates old relationships, and discovers her unique place in the community.

Joyce Hostetter received a BA in early childhood education at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina. She continued her studies on the graduate level in special education at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and in art at James Madison University in Virginia. She lives in Newton, North Carolina.