Janisse Ray

This is a true story of eight children who survived through hardships of their childhood the best they could without loving parents and grandparents who abandoned them to live their lives the best they could. This happened to the eight children in The Woods Of Fannin County by Janisse Ray in the southern Appalachians of the 1940s in Fannin County, Georgia. The eight children from the age of a baby to twelve years old lived in a falling down shack by themselves for four years, but I can say they loved and took care of each other the best they could. The dedication to each other shows how one can survive with love in their heart. A very heart wrenching story!… (mehr)

This book was intended for research for my 5th novel, but it was the best, most fun, and interesting "research" I've done in a while! I think I'd have read it anyway - even if it didn't deal with south Georgia where a good chunk of my next book is set simply because her story seemed very interesting. Ray's book reminded me a little bit of "Educated" (Westover), just a deep south version of it. But in addition, I found Ray's story more plausible. There were some areas of "Educated" that made me wonder about the truth of it.

Ray's father was something of a mechanical genius (reminded me of my own dad) and he ran a junkyard, and could find anything in it - even though it was this vast expanse of land filled with . . . junk. I thoroughly enjoyed how she wrote about all of her family, from her father, her mother, her grandmothers, her grandfather, her brothers, and so on. I loved reading the parts where she and her brothers would play in junkyard cars, how their imaginations were in overdrive. They played a lot like my brother and I did. The Rays didn't have TV, she couldn't wear pants, and she couldn't show skin above her elbows or above her knees. (fundamentalist upbringing)

I think what I loved about CRACKER most was Ray's conversational way of writing the chapters that were from her naturalist/environmentalist background. It was interesting to find out about pitcher plants, the savanna, salamanders, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and the myriad of other fascinating species that live there. I learned about fire keeping down hardwood growth that destroys this delicate environment. How many long leaf pines there used to be, and how many there are now. (not much) I learned how it's not right to simply plant trees in a row, crowding out the sunlight that's needed to sustain plants and animals alike, and many other ways we impact nature without a clue. It was truly eye-opening.

I'm glad she wrote this book, and I'm glad I read it.

… (mehr)