The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee

In this award-winning coming-of-age novel ten-year-old Gracie Lee struggles to make sense out of her life as an Arkansas farm girl in the early 1970s. Wise beyond her age yet imbued with child-like innocence Gracie focuses on the three things that keep her awake at night: Solving the mystery of the man in the gray house;Surviving another school year at Savage Crossing Elementary; and Saving her alcoholic Daddy from himself (and thereby saving the whole family and wider world).Gracie feels certain there is more to life beyond school and dull church sermons. She worries about the soldiers in Vietnam and wonders what it must be like to have been born Lisa Marie Presley from Tennessee instead of Gracie Lee Abbott from Arkansas. Mostly she wishes her Daddy wasnt so mean.Gracies unchecked imagination leads to Nancy Drew-type adventure. Adventure leads to trouble. She confides in unexpected characters and seeks solace in a mysterious gray house beyond the cotton field. When Gracie faces a difficult family situation she must make a life-altering decision one that will test the very essence of her character.At best most first novels indicate potential. It would be wrong to say that when reading Talya Tate Boerners The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee I was pleasantly surprised. Actually I was amazed. Theres magic here in a wonderfully-told story that will find a special place in any readers heart. Jeff Guinn New York Times bestselling author.Boerners prose is a wonderful medium for unspooling Gracies story imbued with all the snark wonder and colorful details that characterize childhood... The author addresses real high-stakes issues without slathering them in melodrama or saccharine sentimentality and her book hearkens back to an older YA tradition of stories of plucky preteen girls spooky houses and inevitable tragedies that help mark the turning point from childhood to adolescence. A stirring novel with a distinctive young narrator. Kirkus Reviews