"I put my books on the return shelf, and Miss Attickson smiles at us from behind her desk, her short black hair tucked behind her ears. ‘Well, I was hoping I’d see y’all today, the venerable Weems tribe. I was lucky to get to make two trips to Maggie Valley in a week. That doesn’t happen near enough as far as I’m concerned. Now listen, who needs apples? I have a fine sack of apples under this desk . . . Miss Attickson continues, ‘Well, y’all children know what I say, don’t you? Books and apples go together. One of my very favorite things in this world is to curl up with a good book and a crisp juicy apple on a lazy summer afternoon. You children make that a lifelong habit, and you will fill many a lonely hour. Books and apples. Small miracles, but miracles just the same.’"

Make GENTLE’S HOLLER your next apple adventure. It will fill you up with the tender, happy, poignant music of a large North Carolina family.

And when you’re ready for more, reach for a big second helping of Kerry Madden’s next book in the Weems family trilogy, LOUISIANA’S SONG, published just this past spring:


LOUISIANA’S SONG by Kerry Madden
Ages 12 and up (Viking, 2007)