I absolutely LOVE Cynthia Rylant. She is such an amazing and versatile author. I have always had a ton of her books in my classroom. Two of my favorites are The Bookshop Dog and The Relatives Came. Most of her books that I have been familiar with are for younger readers. I was very interested in reading this one for older readers and a book written in a different format. Her story of Ludie's life was just beautiful and contained some very bittersweet lines. Even though there were just glimpses of her long life, I felt as if I got to know the character even better than one sometimes does in a full length novel. Worth reading!