by Tamara Bundy (Author)

   Set in the 1940’s, life is hard for most people in America. Men – dads and brothers – are off to war while their families struggle as best they can on rations and victory gardens.  Life for Pixie Davidson seems even harder, and she’s carrying around a guilt complex heavier than a house.  Her mother died after she caught Pixie’s cold, and her beloved sister, Charlotte, was stricken with polio and taken into quarantine, and that was Pixie’s fault too.  At least she believes it is.

The book sprinkles a few stark realities about polio here and there that give it the gravity of truth.

Since Pixie and her dad moved back to her grandparents’ farm, she has chores that she’s never done, and she’s in a new school.  A mean old chicken pecks her every time she gathers eggs. The kids at school – even her teacher, Miss Meanie-Beanie – avoid her “like the plague” fearful of catching polio too.

But over time, with her grandparents’ wisdom and a cute little orphan lamb, Pixie begins to “push on” through the difficulties and even experience compassion for others. Enemies become friends (except for “Teacher,” that nasty hen), and heartache turns to understanding and joy.

PIXIE PUSHES ON is not a funny, flippant story, although there are a few sweetly humorous times. It’s a coming-of-age story, and Pixie’s “new age” is much better.  Oh, and through someone she once thought an enemy, Pixie learns the truth about Charlotte’s polio.

Great for older elementary and young teen readers.

FOUR Stars