Growing Up Blues - Hummingbird by Kimberly Greene Angle

This is a really touching book about a girl called March Anne Tanner, who lives on a watermelon farm with her father, her brother Kevin and her grandma Grenna. Her mother passed away when she was young & considered Grenna as a mother. Grenna loves telling the children stories about her life; like when she married the children's Grandpap. She also teaches them about valuable lessons in life, using things around her as examples.

March Anne enjoys spending her time with her friends, Meg & Laverne. They form a group they call Pseudonymphs, having secret meetings & change their names with the seasons. But tragedy strikes when Grenna suffers a heart attack. She survives but has to move around with the aid of a walker. After the incident, March Anne starts to miss the old Grenna as her grandma stays in bed more & grows weaker each day. To add on to her worries, her father struggles to sustain the family. March Anne confides in her friends, who are also experiencing family issues. When Grenna dies, March Anne is grief-stricken & resolves to fulfill her grandma's wish for her: to follow a buried rail that the girls had discovered in the fall & see where it leads to. There, she finds out about her late mother & her grandma's younger days. With a hummingbird named Zipp as a reminder of her grandma, March Anne learns to let go.

I like this book as it really moves you & you can relate to it well, especially those who have gone through a similar situation. As you read about how March Anne tries to move on despite her troubles, you can understand how she's feeling & you empathise for her. When March Anne finds her mother's & grandma's past treasures, you get a glimpse of how they lived. It is overall a very realistic story of a girl losing her loved ones. I lost my own maternal grandfather 2 years ago so I can understand the heartache she feels. It is an inspirational book with many life values to learn, for all.

I hope this book will touch your heart as it touched mine. Please share your comments & views so I may know what you think.
Lydia