Ludie's Life
4.5/5
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About this ebook
Cynthia Rylant returns to her home state of West Virginia with this powerful and evocative collection of poems. In a heartbreaking narrative that flows like a novel, we follow Ludie from childhood to falling in love and getting married, through the birth of her own children, and on into old age. This is the story of one woman’s experiences in a hardscrabble coal-mining town, a story that brims with universal themes about life, love, and family—and all of the joy, laughter, heartache, and loss that accompany them.
Would she tell you that six children
were too many,
that some disappointed,
others surprised,
but that, all in all,
six
were too many
and one
would have been just fine?
Would she tell you that she married
that boy at fifteen
not only because he was tall and kind
but also because
she needed a way out?
“A brilliant contribution to the growing collection of Appalachian literature that tells the story as honestly and purely as life in the mountains has always been and always will be.” —Teenreads
“A collection of Zen-like moments of self-discovery and serenity . . . A powerful read for young and old alike.” —Kirkus Reviews
Cynthia Rylant
Cynthia Rylant is a Newbery medalist and the author of many acclaimed books for young people. She's well known for her popular characters for early readers, including Mr. Putter & Tabby and Henry & Mudge. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. cynthiarylant.com
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Reviews for Ludie's Life
20 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent short read by a children's author. The verses flowed together. It was about Ludie's life from childhood until her death at age 95 in a nursing home. It was sad at the same time very enlightening. It made me think about my own life and family. How fast time goes by. I will definetly reread this again.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A novel in free verse which tells of Ludie, who married young and had six children, watched them grow up, move away, and who grows old and dies. The part where she sends a son off to Vietnam had me weeping. A lovely, quietly lyrical book that I will buy and read again.
Book preview
Ludie's Life - Cynthia Rylant
Contents
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Ludie’s Life
About the Author
Copyright © 2006 by Cynthia Rylant
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
www.hmhco.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Rylant, Cynthia.
Ludie’s life/Cynthia Rylant.
p. cm.
1. Poor women—Poetry. 2. West Virginia—Poetry. 3. Women—West Virginia—Poetry. I. Title.
PS3568.Y55L83 2006
811'.54—dc22 2005014231
ISBN-13: 978-0-15-205389-5 ISBN-10: 0-15-205389-1
eISBN 978-0-544-63087-1
v1.0415
For Elda, Velma, Agnes . . .
and all the Ludies who raised me
Would she tell you that six children
were too many,
that some disappointed,
others surprised,
but that, all in all,
six
were too many
and one
would have been just fine?
Would she tell you that she married
that boy at fifteen
not only because he was tall and kind
but also because
she needed a way out?
Her mother had died years before,
her father married again,
a woman with children of her own,
a woman who pushed Ludie
away from the house,
away from the supper table.
Would she tell you that she stole food
when she was eight,
stole food from the supper table
and ran to the creek to eat it,
because had she waited for that woman
to feed her,
there would have been
only scraps?
Ludie was a beautiful girl,
saucy, some called her,
and she raised herself,
herself and her sister, Trula,
after their mother died.
They were living in Alabama,
it was the 1910s,
and there was a train to Birmingham,
a train that could take them out of that
coal camp
to Birmingham
if only they’d had the money
and the courage,
but the train to Birmingham
always left without them.
They sat on the grassy hill
with everyone else
who had come to watch the train
pull in and out,
not a nickel in
their pockets,
owned by the mine
that sent their fathers and sons
to dark graves.
Not a nickel in
their pockets.
Ludie’s life then was happy and sad,
she would say.
There was no thought
to what work
she might do in her life.
Teacher.
Nurse.
Not a chance.
Not when you’re stealing food
off your own supper table.
Did Ludie’s father
love her?
Obviously not as much
as the second woman
he married.
This was not lost
on Ludie.
So when that boy—
they called him Rupe,
and he was tall and kind—
walked her home from the train
when she was fifteen,
their future was sealed
and there would be six babies,
maybe five too many,
and sex
would never be what it was
that first night,
it would be instead
one of those gifts
you know you can’t afford
but you spend the money anyway,
sex would be instead
one of those things
you could have done without, maybe,
if you’d known the cost.
She spent the money anyway
and there were six babies,
five too many,
and she’d be the rest of her life
taking care of them
in one way or another,
taking care of them
until her last breath
because that’s