My mother was named Sammy after her mother read this book. Her father died 7 months before she was born. Her mother wanted to name her after her father Samuel, but didn't dare name her Sammy--a boy's name. This book was a best seller of its day, and a friend gave it to Grandma Maggie and told her to read it and then she would want to name her baby Sammy after the heroine of the book. She is a bright young woman named Sammy. Grandma did and my mother was then named after her father Samuel.
Besides all that, it is a mystery that leaves you thinking. It is set in the hills of Missouri and explores the way of life there, and then a mysterious man from the city comes into their midst to live. As we read we wonder why is he there and what is his purpose?

Some Quotes I Loved:
(From their discussion about "What is Love?" Sammy answers her friend:)
"No, it ain't, Mandy; it's a heap more'n that; it's a nursin' babies, and a takin' care of 'em 'till they're growed up, and then when they're big enough to take care o' themselves, and when you're old and in the way, like Grandma Bowles, it's a lookin back over it all and bein' glad you done married the man you did. It's a heap more'n livin' with a man, Mandy; it's a doin' all that, without ever once wishin' he was somebody else" (Wright, p.64).


"The man refused to believe that he heard aright. "You do not understand," he protested, and he tried to tell her of the place in life that would be hers as his wife. In his shallowness, he talked even of jewels, and dresses, and such things.
"But can all this add one thing to life itself?" she asked. "Is not life really independent of all these things? Do they not indeed cover up the real life, and rob one of freedom? It seems to me that is must be so."
" What do you know of the world?" he said roughly.
"Nothing," she said. "But I know a little of life. And I have learned some things that I fear you have not" (Wright, pp 215-216).