Like Dust, I Rise

by Ginny Rorby

Inspired by Amelia Earhart's heroic flights, young Winona 'Nona' Williams tenaciously clings to the desire to become a pilot even after her father, with dreams of his own, dismisses the idea. When he quits his job in the Chicago stockyards to join other homesteaders settling the Great Plains, Nona finds herself torn between supporting her father's vision for their future and her mother's struggle to adjust to life on a desolate prairie.

Initially, things look up for the family as they settle into life in Dalhart, Texas. The wheat boom is in full swing, and it appears her father's dream of providing his family with a home of their own is coming true. Too soon the effects of the depression impact her family. Then the rains stop. Before long, Dalhart is the epicenter of the Dust Bowl.

Like Dust, I Rise transforms poverty into pride and reflects the heroism of endurance.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical

262 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2021

About the author

Ginny Rorby was raised in Winter Park, Florida, and lived in Miami during her career as a Pan American flight attendant. Midway through that career, she enrolled in the University of Miami to pursue an undergraduate degree in biology, graduated and changed direction again. She went on to receive an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International University. Her goal, after wrapping up her flying career and her graduate studies, was to move someplace where she would never be hot again. She now lives on the chilly coast of northern California. Ginny is the author 6 novels for Middle Grade and Young Adults readers: Freeing Finch, How to Speak Dolphin, Lost in the River of Grass, winner of the 2012 / 2013 Sunshine State Young Readers Award; Hurt Go Happy, winner of the 2008 American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award. The Outside of a Horse and Dolphin Sky. Ginny is a past director of the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference.
Her most recent novel, Like Dust, I Rise, is a Coming of Age novel set in Texas during the Dust Bowl.