But put two librarians' heads together, and mountains move.

Fame is a funny thing, like a secret, both are hard to keep.

This is how you hold onto your family. You hold them with open hands so they are free to find futures of their own. It's just that simple.

That meant I could come back whenever I could manage it. And she was telling me to go. She knew the decision was too big a load for me to carry by myself. She knew me through and through. She had eyes in the back of her heart.

Never trust an ugly woman. She's got a grudge against the world,' said Grandma who was no oil painting herself.

The years went by, and Mary Alice and I grew up, Slower than we wanted to, faster than we realized.

With the poetry of plain speaking, Shannon Hitchcock recreates the daily drama of a vanished world.