Irene Bennett Brown

Willow Whip

Willow Faber, whose immigrant farmer family is constantly on the move, has fallen in love with a farm, a former Pony Express Station. With food prices up because of World War I, she’s sure her father could earn enough for the down payment. Willow will do anything to help her father buy it, including disguising herself as a boy to win a horse race, and running the farm when her father is injured, but is it worth sacrificing friends, fun, and school.

“A good portrayal of the prejudices suffered by white European minorities and would be valuable supplementary reading in social studies classes.” --School Library Journal

“The book focuses on the need to be secure and the satisfaction of belonging. Willow Whip is an excellent book for older children and adolescents.” --Journal of Reading

It’s 1888 and 12-year-old Jocey Royal is determined to start a new life on Papa’s rundown Missouri farm.  She wants to be far from Kansas City, where she suffered from taunts about her harelip. But Jocey’s malingering grandmother, with whom she lives, makes things difficult from the beginning. Once on the farm, it is through her own hard work, an honest friendship with her young neighbor Tosten and his family, and the promise on an operation, that Jocey prevails.

“Brown’s Jocey is a plucky heroine whose personality, shaped by her handicap, is adeptly revealed. Portraits of both the land and the people are finely crafted.”--ALA Booklist

"A deeply moving story of tenderness and grit."--St. Louis Dispatch

"A sensitive story with winsome characters. You'll want to cheer at the ending!"--Ohio Valley Libraries

ISBN 0-7862-4127-6

ISBN 0-7862-4392-9