![]() ![]() I don’t remember reading it as a child, although if it was in my library I probably did, but I see so much more in the story as an adult reader: the feckless yet well-intentioned father, the teacher trying to save the Hutley family’s pride yet provide a nourishing hot lunch, the kind uncle instilling savings lessons in the family that likes to spend every penny it earns on junk. Ricky Hutley gets hit by a tractor - no health insurance!Īudience: Lenski wrote this story at the request of Arkansas children who had admired her Newbery Medal winner, Strawberry Girl. The story is told from Joanda’s perspective as she becomes more perceptive and begins to glimpse how the work done by her father and others fits into an economic system its participants are unaware of. ![]() ![]() Yet the Hutley parents are good people, well-liked by their peers, respected for their work ethic, and compassionate toward others. The sharecropper life is very bleak for Joanda’s parents: they don’t see any escape and do not know how to save so are constantly at the mercy of unexpected disasters such as illness or can’t pay for daily living expenses due to their own feckless spending. It is a hard life but it is all the Hutley family knows and they have fun together despite their hard work and financial worries. Children help their parents pick cotton and school only takes place in the off season. Plot: Joanda, age 10, is part of an Arkansas sharecropper family on the Cotton belt. ![]()
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