In the beautiful collection of fictional southern style short stories, set in her hometown, Katherine Dye highlights many nooks and crannies of New Albany, Mississippi, and if you are a native, you will delight in reading about the places you often see. If not well, you will want to visit this lovely little artisan town and see for yourself the wonders of the pleasant and less complex southern way of life as depicted in Katherine’s stories, paintings, and sketches.
The beauty of her short stories is their attraction to the Word of God. Katherine, from a child, was encouraged to memorize scripture verses; and those that became a lamp unto her feet and a light unto her path are the ones she has cleverly included. There is a verse for each letter of the alphabet, and she makes clear the need for a two-way conversation between God and his children, the grand and glorious balance of prayer and reading of the scriptures.
The stories are designed for young teens, but if you are a bit older now, you may find yourself slipping back to childhood and teenage years, reminiscent of the days of The Old South. Many of the scriptures Katherine features are those we memorized as children.
We are never too old to learn, but as Katherine explains in the story of Grandy and Jamie, it is much easier when we are youthful and our minds are clear and sharp, unencumbered by years of living and working and loving and playing. It feels good to slip back to those times when our ability to memorize was heightened by virtue of our youth, and the verses we so cherish are those we best remember from childhood.
This collection of stories is timeless. Read and relish youthful thoughts.
