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Jessie Bovey is determined to find out who her father is, master her temper, and make sure her best friend, Robert, gets new glasses in this story set in rural Kentucky in 1967. Julia Gibson finds Jessie's voice in this first-person narration. Her light Southern accent and feisty reading provide a sense of the setting and put the listener in Jessie's head. Gibson creates subtly different voices for all the characters, bringing to life Jessie's tired mother; her businesslike friend, Robert; and Robert's drunken father. As Jessie becomes involved with a volunteer in President Johnson's War on Poverty, she learns more than she wants to about the world, her neighbors, and herself. Listeners will hang on Jessie's every word in a story that will resonate long after it ends. A.F. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]