Faith Sullivan delivers a penetrating study revealing the reality of mental health treatments in 1930s rural and small town America.

She offers a saga of one young girl's home and school daily living with a deeply challenged family as her mother physical and mental awareness declines.
She thankfully has an incredible - kind, caring, and sensitive - father to temper the pain...and to share the joy..."Summer Saturday nights were the real world."

Her mother's eventual hospitalization moves into the only slow and faltering pages as Sally connects with Cole and plot twists go unanswered:
why did her proud and loving father not deal with Cole? He cannot have been unaware of the wildly circulating rumors.

As well, both he and Sally's good friend Neddy must have recognized Cole's voice over the intercom.
Why did they not act against Cole, notably when the horror of his announcement resulted in the suicide of a beautiful teacher...? ( )

This is Sally Wheeler's parallel story to the one Lark told in The Cape Ann. They are two members of the trio of friends growing up in Harvester, MN in the 1930's and 40's. Although the book title is taken from a fairy tale, Sally's life is far from that. Having a "crazy" mother in such an intolerant era was more than an unhappy chapter in her book of life. As she tells her understanding father during a talk about Little Women, "The sad parts never last a whole book, but they show that it's right to hope things will get better, because they do."

There are plenty of sad parts in this book, but they are tempered with hope and humor. Most of the humor comes from the outspoken Beverly, the third member of the trio. Let's hope she gets her own book soon. Ms. Sullivan's storytelling is convincing and addictive. I'm looking forward to reading more of her tales of small town America. ( )

A great author. ( )