"Tallgrass" by Sandra Dallas

My spouse and I are in a book group that meets monthly and our January selection was "Tallgrass" by Sandra Dallas. I had read this book before but didn't realize that I had never blogged about it. Our book club seems to be on a "theme" this year of books set in the era of WW II and/or around Japanese internment camps in the U.S.

This story is told from the perspective of Rennie Stroud who has just turned thirteen and her life is changing as a Japanese internment camp is set up near her Colorado home and her father hires men from the camp to help him work his beet fields. Her older brother goes off to fight and her older sister moves away to a larger city leaving Rennie at home with her father, her mother (who is suffering from heart problems) and a grandmother suffering from dementia. Since her mother needs household help, they hire Japanese women to come during the day and Rennie and her mother befriend these women. Rennie also helps with meal preparation for the farm workers and is privy to the kitchen conversations of the women, her mother, and her mother's quilting group - adult content.

Rennie's father is criticized for hiring men from the camp to work his fields and there is tension as the townspeople turn their anger about the war toward the residents of the internment camp.

Rennie is faced with loss -- loss of her siblings being at home and loss of a friend her age who is murdered -- as well as fear that a murderer is loose and hasn't been brought to justice yet. Rennie is privy to adult conversations and secrets which I believe speed her growing up years as well as aid in her maturity.

This novel is rich with not only historical information but details in the life of Rennie and the beet farm she is growing up on as well as the lives of townspeople she is most closely in contact with. The characters are well developed.

After reading this book twice in the past 2-3 years, I'm ready to check out some other books that Dallas has written. She has a web site that lists some of her new books that interest me: www.sandradallas.com

Let me know what you think if you decide to read this book or any of her other novels.

pazt