Cynthia Rylant! Oh, I love that author and I love this book. When I was a student teacher, I had a class whose students were largely of Appalachian heritage, so I did a unit on Appalachia. This was one of the books that I used.

If you haven’t heard of her, may I suggest Rebecca Caudill? Like Rylant, she’s an Appalachian author, but she hails from Kentucky. She also has one of THE very best Christmas stories ever — A Certain Small Shepherd. The book was written long before autism was diagnosed or discussed, but the main character of the story is a little boy who is nonverbal and is clearly autistic. Even if your child isn’t autistic, I guarantee it’ll bring a sniffle and a good, warm feeling, but if your child is (like mine) — well, you’ll probably do more than sniffle. But it’s a wonderful story, and touches upon a southeastern Kentucky legend, the Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come.

I’d also recommend her Best Loved Doll or A Pocket Full of Cricket for young readers, or Barrie and Daughter for older ones. Really, anything she wrote was wonderful.

Zoey is waiting for you to do a Dora story time video!!!

Christy, you’ve just “made my day!” WHEN I WAS YOUNG IN THE MOUNTAINS was the basis for my all-time favorite unit during 30+ years of teaching. most of which were with first graders. It was a wonderful introduction to learning about the Appalachian area of our country. With help from parent volunteers, we spent one day preparing and eating the meal described in this precious book. Cynthia Rylant was very gracious to send our class a personal message along with other items related to the book, and we proudly had those framed to share with the school as the beginning of an “Author’s Wall” of messages from famous authors of children’s books. This particular book never fails to bring a tear to my eyes, and I’m so glad you introduced it to your audience!

Wow. My grandmother gave me this book when I was little, and I had forgotten about it until I saw this post. Some parts of your reading made my eyes leak. Thanks for all you do and thanks for guiding me on a trip down memory lane.

Hi Christy! I love your recipes so much and now to find these books!!! You make me wish I was from the south and not California. I would love to play your story time videos in my classroom for my fourth graders. They don’t get much exposure to other cultures since my school is 98% Latino. Would it be O.K. to show all 25 at one time? I don’t want to misuse your site, but it’s fantastic!