Hand-me-downs : a Novel

Book excerpt: Meet Cass Blevins. She's only five-going-on-six, but she knows lots of things. And in this year when she goes to first grade, she's learning a whole lot more. . It's 1932, and in East Tennessee there is the beginning of a Depression. Little Charles Lindbergh was thrown in a trash heap by some heathen. Cass knows that. She knows where babies come from. Her brother Til told her all about that. Til knows how to make things. He knows how to make Cass help him exercise his peejabber so it'll reach his knee someday. Cass learns from other folks besides Til. Their neighbor Mrs. Simpson has told her all about the niggers, but Cass's friend Jimmie Lou, the white trash girl down the street, tells her the fountain water is the same for coloreds as for whites. Jimmie Lous says Cass should do what her heart tells her is right and Miss Byers, her first grade teacher, is showing her how to paint herself into a picture. This is the year Cass learns to say no to those that hurt her - and yes to herself. Meet Cass Blevins. You can't help but like her. Spirited child