The Storybook Adventures of Mary Miller

Book excerpt: It is May 1928 in Renton, Washington, when Mary Janette Miller enters the world. Three years later, she is surrounded by friends and her siblings while building magical sandcastle villages and pretending she is a pirate sailing the seas. Unfortunately, because Mary frequently gets distracted and into trouble, she must often escape to her favorite hiding place, underneath her bed, to avoid her mother’s crutches. A short time later after her parents decide to leave Renton for Butte, Montana, Mary embarks on a wild roller coaster ride through childhood as she attempts to navigate through the challenges prompted by the actions of her irresponsible, often absent, father. While growing up and maturing into womanhood amid the building of a famous city in the United States, the Great Depression, and the Second World War, Mary must overcome a variety of obstacles as she learns that having love in her heart leads to true happiness and joy, even through adversity and life’s greatest trials. The Storybook Adventures of Mary Miller is the fictionalized biography of an American girl who sets out on a unique coming-of-age journey in Butte, Montana, during the early twentieth century.