Hard Times for Jake Smith: A Story of the Depression Era (Historical Fiction for Young Readers)

Hard Times for Jake Smith: A Story of the Depression Era (Historical Fiction for Young Readers) by Henderson, Aileen Kilgore. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781571316493.

Its 1935 and the hard times of the Great Depression, it seems, are here to stay. Each day, something else is gone: first the pig, then the cow, finally even the beloved dog is sold. Then young MaryJake Wildsmith and her brothers are told to get in the car and the family sets off. For where? MaryJake wonders, but her parents are silent. A few hours later, Pa stops the car and Ma leans into the back seat, giving MaryJake a handkerchief with something tied inside and instructions to walk down the path into the forest, take the left fork into town, and present the handkerchief at the rock house. Then the car—and with it, Ma, Pa, and MaryJakes brothers—drives away. So begins the adventure of an abandoned girl who chooses her own path (neither left fork nor right), dyes her hair in a stump full of walnut-colored water, and disguises herself as a boy in order to survive. MaryJake Wildsmith is now Jake Smith, soon to discover that she is not the only one keeping secrets.