Otherwise Known as Possum
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A heart-expanding debut that introduces the most charming, mischievous, unforgettable heroine since Scout Finch.Possum Porter has had it with change. First she lost Mama, leaving a hole nothing can fill. And now, instead of trying to return to some kind of normal, Daddy's sending Possum to school. A real school, where you have to wear SHOES. Where some Yankee teacher will try to erase all the useful things Mama taught Possum during their lessons at home.So Possum comes up with a plan. If she can prove that she already knows everything worth knowing, Daddy will let her quit school and stay where she belongs. She won't have to deal with snooty classmates, or worry about tarnishing Mama's memory. But unfortunately, Possum doesn't shoot to the top of the class like she expected. Even worse, the unmarried Yankee teacher seems to have her eyes on someone . . . Possum's Daddy. With time running out, Possum decides to do something drastic to get away from school-and get Daddy out of Ms. Arthington's clutches-or risk losing everything that's keeping her broken heart glued together.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This warm work of historical fiction takes readers to the Hoover-era South, where times are hard for all and particularly tough for LizBetty "Possum" Porter, who yearns for things to be "like when they'd been perfect," back before her mother died in childbirth. Still, Possum, "past eleven and a half, working on twelve," seems to have enough grit to carry her through life's changes, from her family's sadness to worries about a newly arrived "Yankee devil" teacher who seems sweet on her father and wants Possum to go to school, even though "Momma didn't want my learnin' boxed into that schoolhouse." With formal schooling comes an awakening on more than one front, as Possum navigates changing friendships, awkward love, and her own healing heart. Laso saturates her debut novel with fresh figurative language that shapes her characters ("I felt like dirt on a worm belly, only worse") and strongly evokes Possum's world. Sadly, this is also Laso's last work; she died while completing final revisions in 2015. Ages 8 12.
