Description

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An empowering picture book set in the 1940s about a determined five-year-old girl who embarks on a journey to deliver milk to her neighbors in the holler.

Every morning, Ernestine shouts out her window to the Great Smoky Mountains, "I'm five years old and a big girl!" When Mama asks Ernestine--who helps with chores around the farm while Papa is away at war--to carry two mason jars filled with milk to their neighbor, Ernestine isn't sure she can do it. After all, she'd need to walk through thickets of crabapple and blackberry by the creek, not to mention past vines of climbing bittersweet. But Ernestine is five years old and a big girl, so off she sets. Along the way, one mason jar slips from her arms and rolls down the mountainside into the river, and Ernestine is sure it's lost forever . . . until her neighbor's son shows up with a muddy jar--and there's a surprise inside! With tons of flavor and a can-do spirit, here is a celebration of American history and a plucky girl who knows that helping a family in need is worth the trouble.

About the Author

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KERRY MADDEN is the author of the Smoky Mountain Trilogy, which includes Gentle's Holler, Louisiana's Song, and Jessie's Mountain. Gentle's Holler was included on the Bank Street College Best Children's Books list. Her first novel, Offsides, was a New York Public Library Pick for the Teen Age. Up Close: Harper Lee made Booklist's Top Ten Biographies for Youth list. Her first picture book, Nothing Fancy About Kathryn and Charlie, was illustrated by her daughter, Lucy. Kerry directs the creative writing program at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Visit her on the web at kerrymadden.com or on Twitter @kerrymadden.

EMILY SUTTON was born in Yorkshire, England, and graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art. She is the illustrator of Clara Button and the Magical Hat Day, The Tale of the Castle Mice, One Christmas Wish, The Christmas Eve Tree, and Tiny: The Invisible World of Microbes, which won an AAAS award for best picture book. Her work can also be seen on textiles for St. Jude's fabrics, for which she won an Elle Deco award for best surface design. Visit her on the web at emillustrates.com.

Praise For…

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“It seems like the recipe for Ernestine’s Milky Way is to fill a mason jar with the words of Kerry Madden-Lunsford and the pictures of Emily Sutton, add a spoonful of Barbara Cooney, William Steig, and Virginia Lee Burton, then shake it up into this fresh concoction of classic storytelling and energetic art. This book reads like butter.” – Marla Frazee, two-time Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator


"This delicious period story with its warmly inviting illustrations has some surprises that get us right into the heart of the story. And what a good heart it is!” -Jane Yolen, author of Owl Moon, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight, and A Bear Sat On My Porch Today.