Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift

This is the story of Minnie, a young girl growing up in the midst of the Great Depression, a time when about a third of the population was out of work, banks closed and people lost their money, and the stock market crashed.

The story describes what's going on where Minnie lives and how things are affecting her family and friends. What complicates matters immediately is the presence of Willie Faye comes to live with them. Things get worse when one of the neighbor's father commits suicide and more and more people are losing their jobs, eventually including Minnie's father.

Then Minnie's father disappears, apparently taking off on his own, and the chaos level rises even higher. Yet eventually everything works out in the end.

One of the major strong points of the book is the emphasis it places on how people's attitudes can help determine if they will get through a crisis in their lives or not. The whole thing with Willie Faye is also a bit of excellent writing.

As with other books in the series, a historical section is included to help put the events of the story into proper perspective.


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