Dirty Feet and Hungry Hearts

An excerpt from Dirty Feet and Hungry Hearts- Why? This was the question my sister and I asked each other, over and over. Every time we started talking about our mother, it was always this unanswered question we were left with. Why was she so unhappy? Why was she so abusive to Daddy, who loved her with his whole heart and soul? Why wouldn't she take care of herself? When I decided to try and find the answer, it was very hard to face those long buried memories from my childhood. But I did come to understand why.
Author Jeanette Gardner uses her deeply personal memoir to share the touching story of her mother Pearl's journey, from growing up the daughter of a wealthy family in Illinois to living in a shack in Wyoming.

A sweeping memoir chronicling the origins of the author's family and their subsequent struggle with poverty. After getting to know much-older Bowman Mercer through a pen-pal service, Pearl, the author's mother, eventually leaves her abusive brother and their inherited house to move to Wyoming as Bowman's wife. She weathers their paltry circumstances and survives Jeanette's grueling birth and a near-poisoning by a jealous woman. As a little girl, the author lived in homes with dirt floors and rarely bathed, which often made her and her family-her parents and sister, Virginia-an object of ridicule. Nonetheless, she lived a largely happy childhood, developing a resilient, stubborn nature, and benefiting from her indulgent but well-meaning parents and helpful townspeople. With poignant empathy, the author successfully traces Pearl's transformation from a pleasant, shy beauty to an unkempt grouch prone to hysterics. She also understands how to build suspense, but inexplicably sabotages her own groundwork by giving away key plot elements in the chapter titles. For instance, a new neighbor's spooky friendliness-skillfully brought to life on the page-is prematurely explained by the chapter's title, "Graduation, A Child Molester."

-Kirkus Discoveries