Deer Valley Girl

American Regional

by Lois Lenski

When a three generation feud between two Vermont families is finally resolved, a little girl learns to accept the truth about how her dog was killed.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, Classics, Geography, Young Adult

145 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Lenski

Many of Lenski's books can be collated into 'series' - but since they don't have to be read in order, you may be better off just looking for more information here: http://library.illinoisstate.edu/uniq...

Probably her most famous set is the following:
American Regional Series

Beginning with Bayou Suzette in 1943, Lois Lenski began writing a series of books which would become known as her "regional series." In the early 1940s Lenski, who suffered from periodic bouts of ill-health, was told by her doctor that she needed to spend the winter months in a warmer climate than her Connecticut home. As a result, Lenski and her husband Arthur Covey traveled south each fall. Lenski wrote in her autobiography, "On my trips south I saw the real America for the first time. I saw and learned what the word region meant as I witnessed firsthand different ways of life unlike my own. What interested me most was the way children were living" (183).
In Journey Into Childhood, Lenski wrote that she was struck by the fact that there were "plenty of books that tell how children live in Alaska, Holland, China, and Mexico, but no books at all telling about the many ways children live here in the United States"

Bayou Suzette.
Strawberry Girl.
Blue Ridge Billy.
Judy's Journey.
Boom Town Boy.
Cotton in My Sack.
Texas Tomboy.
Prairie School.
Corn-Farm Boy.
San Francisco Boy.
Flood Friday.
Houseboat Girl.
Coal Camp Girl.
Shoo-Fly Girl.
To Be a Logger.
Deer Valley Girl.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely the sweetest of the Regionals that I have read thus far. I adored this book. Very sweet-- no major tragedy and everything is tied up with a nice bow at the end.

[Arline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mind definitely can play tricks! When I first saw this book I thought the title was Deep Valley Girl. How exciting;I thought it might be a Betsy-Tacy book (Maud Hart Lovelace).

[Ginnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

another sweet novel by Lois Lenski.

[Mckinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in the series. This is set in Vermont.

[Liz Blaufuss · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was awful. I’m so glad I didn’t read it as a kid. I would have been traumatized. The Pecks and the Otises have fought for four generations, and the mean things they did to each other were awful. But the worst is what everyone in the book did to the animals. A father shot his daughter’s dog! They kept a bear in a cage and then let it out to hunt it! Hunters illegally butchered deer in the woods! It was so sad.

[Abbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rated by my 8 yo