The Ballad of Jesse Pearl by Shannon Hitchcock

The Ballad of Jesse Pearl cover image

When her sister Carrie, who is dying of TB, asks Jesse to describe her heaven, and Jessie says it smells like freshly baked biscuits, only you don’t have to bake them, this rural story had me hooked. The author creates scenes intimate enough for the reader to hear the baby clank his spoon on the tray of his high chair. She makes me love this family by zooming me in close and deftly employing historical period detail throughout.

Life and death questions in the book are balanced by coming-of-age ones, like whether to stay on familiar ground with her sweetheart or whether to go out into the unknown to follow her dream. The challenges faced by Jesse feel as relevant today as in the 1922 North Carolina setting. When Sophie asks Jesse what she needs to be happy, Jesse’s first reply is one today’s girls might well make: I’m not sure. Nobody ever asked me before.

What brings Jesse through more than her share of hardship for any fourteen-year-old is her passionate spirit. Here is a heroine whose conflicting feelings tear her apart, one whose gumption puts her back together and on her path.

text © Susa Silvermarie2013