Tumbleweed Skies

by Valerie Sherrard

The moment Ellie and her father pull up in front of Grandmother Acklebee's farm in Weybolt, Saskatchewan, Ellie knows she isn't wanted. But Ellie's father has just taken a job as a traveling salesman, and he has no other choice. The road is no place for a nine-year-old.

Ellie doesn't know her grandmother, but she learns quickly that the older woman blames her son-in-law and granddaughter for her daughter's death. And although her Uncle...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1554551137
• ISBN13: 9781554551132
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 9 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 6

Customer Reviews

The story gently "hooks" the young reader and carries them through to new rainbows and experiences

"Tumbleweed Skies" is a paperback chapter book written for children ages 8-12 about a girl named Ellie who spends a long summer visiting her grandmother on a prairie farm while her unemployed father seeks better paying employment. What makes the visit even harder is Ellie's grandmother does not particularly want her to be there. However her Uncle Roger is more gently welcoming and Ellie learns to do the hard work that is expected of her on the farm and she makes a strange friend of a magpie she names Sammie. "Tumbleweed Skies" is an appealing book about a tough heroine who learns to struggle and to find joy in odd places. The crusty teaching that life can deliver hard knocks is gently molded into a dawning realization that things are actually about as good as you can make them, with a little help. "Tumbleweed Skies" is today's generation's version of dust bowl depression stories from decades past. The story gently "hooks" the young reader and carries them through to new rainbows and experiences.

Wonderful

What a beautiful bittersweet book. I love that this story is all Canadian - written by a Canadian author and based on a Canadian Prairie. The book tells the story of Lizzie who is "stuck" with her mean, old grandmother in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan. Lizzie has lost her mom and now, her dad is leaving her with "a mean old grandmother" while he attempts to make a living on the road. The grandmother is bitter, in part because she blames Lizzie and her dad for the death of Lizzie's mother. What I immediately felt as I read this book is that absolutely everyone in this story is broken and in desperate need of love. Although the grandmother character is definitely not adorable, we somehow get the feeling that she is living throuh her own kind of hell and is determined to share this with everyone, specifically Lizzie. This book is so poignant - at times I hated all the characters for the way they were treating Lizzie and at times, I understood their pain. The lack of communication and verbally sharing of feelings is palpable. You wanted to scream "share, share what you are feeling". A wonderfully put together book - difficult to read, but all too real.