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CHILDREN’S BOOKS Molly Mockingbird by Hannah Kay Beverage. Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Printing, 2019. 15 pages with drawings by the author on every page.  8.5” X 11” staple-bound paperback, $10.00. Molly the mockingbird has a wonderful life living in the brushy pine in Katherine Marie’s yard. The author lives in Marlinton, West Virginia.   NON-FICTION Bedford County Virginia Militia, 1774-1783 by Karen J. Dunn. Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Printing, 2019. 156 pages with lots of maps and charts. 8.5” X 11” trade paperback, $25.00 The author has assembled into spread sheets crucial documents obtained over many years. They tell the...

NON-FICTION Appalachian Englishes in the Twenty-First Century edited by Kirk Hazen. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2020. 203 pages with an Index. Trade paperback, $29.99. This book consists of 11 essays by professors that seek to illuminate various aspects of our regional dialect. The first part emphasizes the reality of different sub-regions within our region. The second part deals with the intersections of linguistics and ethnicity and sexuality and identity. The third and final part looks at language in four different arenas - in the high school, the college, in literature, and in the world of race-car driving. The author...

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS Cattywampus by Ash Van Otterloo. New York: Scholastic Press: 2020. 288 pages. Hardback in dust jacket, 17.95. This middle grade novel is set in Howler’s Hollow. The two young narrators of the book are Delpha McGill and Katybird Hearn, both of whom consider themselves witches and who come from rival mountain families with a history of feuding. Will the hex that went haywire bring the two together?  Watch out for zombie grannies and an enchanted outhouse. The author lived in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, but now resides in Bremerton, Washington. This is her...

FICTION Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle. Lexington: Fireside Industries/University Press of Kentucky, 2020. 240 pages. Hardback in dust jacket, $24.95. Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle is the grand-daughter of Osley Bird Saunooke who served as the Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians from 1951 to 1955 and again from 1959 to 1963. He was also elected vice-president of the National Congress of American Indians and lobbied extensively in Washington, D. C. for native peoples nationally and in North Carolina. A veteran of the Marines, he held the world heavyweight wrestling championship from 1937 until 1951....

NON-FICTION Foxfire Story: Oral Tradition in Southern Appalachia edited by T. J. Smith. New York: Anchor/Penguin Random House, 2020. 299 pages with a Foreword by John A. Burrison and photos. Trade paperback, $19.95. Foxfire is bioluminescence from fungi decaying on wood. Although it has been viewed as a phenomenon most prevalent in the Southern Appalachians and thus a kind of symbol for the region, it occurs world-wide. The oldest written documentation of it was by Aristotle, and it figures in Japanese folklore. The Foxfire Fund is a multi-million-dollar enterprise headquartered in Rabun County, Georgia’s most northeastern county. Eliot Wigginton started...