Thursday, April 8, 2010

The Sweetheart of Prosper County


Somehow the month of March got away from me and it has been over a month since I have put anything new on my blog. Because of construction, the library has moved into a temporary space, so that is what I have been doing instead of reading. We are finally settling in and here are some pictures of our fantastic temporary space. The construction workers are really working on remodeling our new library and we are supposed to be in it sometime at the beginning of next school year. However, we are enjoying our new view and our new home, however temporary it is!

As we begin Spring, I start looking for books that have a summer feel to them. The Sweetheart of Prosper County by Jill S. Alexander is one of those books. The rooster on the front cover with the Country Fair blue ribbon makes me think of the many county fairs I have attended!


However, The Sweetheart of Prosper County is not just a lighthearted novel about the country fair, it is a novel about a family dealing with loss. Austin’s father died on Christmas Eve when she was only 6 years old, and even though, Austin is now a freshmen in high school, her mother is stilling wearing black T-shirts and refusing to celebrate Christmas or other holidays.


As her freshman year progresses, Austin grows increasingly tired of Dean Ottner the school bully making fun of her. It seems that she is his favorite target and she wants to shut him up once and for all. In order to do this, Austin decides to join the FFA at school and become a Sweetheart of Prosper County and ride in the Christmas Parade next year She thinks that Dean will not be able to make fun of the Sweetheart of Prosper County. So she asks her mother for a chicken for Christmas. so she can have an animal to enter at the County Fair. This is when a rooster named Charles Dickens enters her family, she becomes friends with Josh, a reticent cowboy, and tries to helps her mother deal with the grief from the loss of her father. If you are looking for a fun read, this is the perfect book for you.








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