Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different

Author Kristin O'Donnell Tubb

For Ages
9 to 12

A charming, humorous story about one spunky heroine and how the Smoky Mountains National Park came to be, celebrating the importance of conservation, family, and individuality -- from the author of A Dog Called Daisy and The Story Collector.

AUTUMN WINIFRED OLIVER prides herself on doing things her way. But she meets her match when she, her mama, and her pin-curled older sis, Katie, move in with her cantankerous Gramps. The Oliver gals were supposed to join Pop…

An Excerpt fromAutumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different

1

I do things different. It helps to remind yourself of that when you're attending your own funeral.

So there I stood, on something akin to a big, bald behind. Mighty appropriate circumstances, considering what came next.

I was in the Meadow in the Sky on top of Thunderhead Mountain. Thunderhead gets its name because it's so high up, thunderstorms crack and boom and dump rain below you. There aren't any trees up there, so the mountaintop is nothing but a big, swishy meadow. Folks around here call it a "bald," and it looks enough like a hairless head. But all those mountains together, they look more to me like they're baring their rumps to the heavens above. So I figure all this talk about a national park is nothing but a bunch of hoo-ha. Who'd travel across the country to see this?

Truth be told, I cotton to the balds, myself. Those balds, they're a bit of a mystery. Nobody knows for sure why trees don't grow on them. It's not that the mountains are too tall, or…