The Sky Is Falling

by Barbara Corcoran

Just after Annah's 14th birthday in 1931, all her family's money is lost in the stock market, her father is fired, and she is sent away from her comfortably affluent home in a Boston suburb to live with her aunt in a lakefront cottage in rural New Hampshire. Taunted as a "summer person" by her new schoolmates, Annah befriends Dorie, also an outcast, but at the opposite end of the social scale. As their friendship develops, Annah learns some important lessons about poverty and self-sacrifice, just as Dorie learns that being proud doesn't preclude accepting charity. Corcoran warmly evokes the Depression era in telling detail - Moxie sodas, marcelled hairwhile making some timeless observations about loving relationships and the common thread that unites people regardless of social distinctions.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

This is not the Shark Tank celebrity, but an author of children's books. The books are mostly realistic fiction about older children and teens who come from families that are dysfunctional or at least face interesting challenges.

Also used the pseudonym Paige Dixon and Gail Hamilton.

Reviews

[Martine · Rating 5 out of 5]

For most there is probably nothing special about this book; for me it was the book I constantly kept checked out of the library. I was not a student that read (mostly because they told me I had to). I would even fake reading during SSR time I hated it so much. Slips of this book would catch me during that time though and would be permanently embedded in my memory. Mostly, what I remember is how the descriptions of the cold resonated with me. I must have gotten a few pages in during the great blizzard of ‘93 because I long for this book in cold weather. I spent years searching for this book based solely on that “feeling” and the bits I could remember. I couldn’t remember the title, but thanks to a FB group, I found it. The search was officially on! I now own two copies and cherish both dearly. For me it’s the way this book can transport me back in time. It must have been something special way back then for me to hang onto it like I did is all I’m saying. I’m glad I did, because now I love to read! I’m glad books never gave up on me.