The Girl from Gladden Street

Sometimes life plays little jokes. For Jeannette McDonald growing up in a small town in West Virginia in the 1950s life had three particular jokes in mind: naming her after a famous movie star giving her a birthday just after Valentine's Day and letting her grow up on a street named Gladden-a place as far from glad as Jeannette was from being a movie star.<p> Growing up is supposed to be a time of wonder and joy. For the girl on Gladden Street the wonder was in discovering that when life plays jokes anything is possible if you keep a healthy attitude. Ms. McDonald relates that some of life's harshest realities can lead to new awakenings and a better life.<p> Peppered with a series of brief episodic coming-of-age vignettes that illustrate Ms. McDonald's life and much of the American landscape of the 1950s The Girl from Gladden Street provides a reminder that some of our most valuable lessons come from events experienced during the most impressionable times of life.