Blue

Written by Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Narrated by Kate Forbes

When thirteen-year-old Ann Fay Honeycutt’s father goes off to fight Hitler, he hands her a pair of blue overalls to become “man of the house.” Her feelings are mixed: “Wearing britches so I could take the place of my daddy wasn’t the same
as wearing them so I could climb trees.” Ann Fay fights her resentment at losing the life she’d known just as she fights to keep the weeds and the blue wisteria from overtaking the family vegetable garden. But when a polio outbreak changes
everything again, remarkable Ann Fay needs all of her guts and resolve to face the unpredictable future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705077870

Reviews for Blue

[Crystal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a wonderful read!! Great insight to what America endured.

[jothebookgirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an absolutely wonderful book. I fell in love with

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ann Fay is left to be the "man of the house" when her father goes off to fight in World War II. She lives just outside of Hickory, N.C., and during the summer, a dreadful polio epidemic hits the western portion of the state, with Hickory as it's focal point. The book rather smoothly covers a wide variety of issues... war, polio epidemic, and racial relations of the era being the main three. First Ann Fay's little brother comes down with polio and is taken off to the temporary hospital set up in Hickory*. Later Ann Fay herself comes down with the disease, and ends up meeting the first black girl she's ever encountered personally as a fellow patient in the contagious ward of the hospital. *The Miracle of Hickory is the hospital setting of large portions of the book, and is real. When the epidemic hit, the people of Hickory came together and in three days built a temporary hospital which at it's peak had over 200 patients.

[bookishdame · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Blue" is a lovely, extraordinary small book that is both heart-warming and historical. Written about the Great Hickory, NC Polio Epidemic of 1944, during WWII, the story involves a sweet, naive family whose father has gone off to war and who are left to carry on in a harsh and inprotected environment for which they are ill-equipped. They are a little band made up of a young mother, a 13 yr. old, twin elementary school aged little girls and a pre-school aged boy. All of this little family live mostly on the land, have very little meat, and they can wild berries and their own garden vegetables for the winter. The eldest daughter, Ann Fay, is given a set of overalls and instructions by her dad to be the "man of the house" while he's away...a daunting task for any child. It is Ann Fay who takes on the burden of guilt when her baby brother is struck down with polio, and when she is also taken with polio and removed from her family responsibilities. Blue" has won a bushelful of impressive awards for children's literature. It is a very special book. However, its beauty makes it a most worthy read for adults and those who enjoy YA fiction, as well. Having a mother who was a polio patient in Hickory, NC, during this same epidemic in 1944, made me especially interested in this book! Although it's a fiction novel, Ms Hostetter recounts the particulars of the disease, the hospital-like facilities, and the therapies as my own mother recalls them. So, there is much truth to her fiction. The book is also a moral tale. So much of the simple values and morality of a common way of living in the South are protrayed in "Blue." The faith that uplifts all of her friends and relatives in Ann Fay's community are deeply moving. These values and the quiet, simple ways of living still linger in this region of NC, today. I recommend this book without reservation to those who love a historic novel, YA fiction, and all readers of medical history.