Twelve-year-old Jessie K. Bovey has a lot to worry about. She doesn’t know who her father is; her old biddy of a grandmother keeps interfering in her life; her best friend, Robert, desperately needs new glasses that his family can’t afford; and mean Dickie Whitten teases Robert until Jessie has no choice but to punch him out.
When some New York City reporters show up in Beulah County to research a story about the War on Poverty, Jessie sees a way to solve one of her problems. She can charge money for showing the reporters around town so they can take pictures of the “local color” and use it to help pay for Robert’s glasses. But her plan backfires spectacularly, and Jessie learns some big lessons—and some big secrets as well.
A small Kentucky town and its quirky inhabitants are vividly evoked in Shutta Crum’s warm, atmospheric coming-of-age story, which handles multiple serious themes with a light touch.
- Click here to get a used hardcover copy and read reviews of SPITTING IMAGE at amazon.com.
- Click here to get a new paperback copy and read reviews.
- Click here for a reader’s guide to SPITTING IMAGE.
- Click here to find out why I wrote this book.
- Click here to read an interview with Shutta at the Cynthia Leitich Smith Site.
- Click here to see some photographs that inspired me to write this novel.
- Click here to go to the STRANGER WITH A CAMERA website.
- Click here for more information on President Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”
- Click here for information on the history of the VISTA volunteers.