Isabella Mine

by Helen Reeder Cross, Catherine Stock (Illustrator)

Drawing on her own childhood spent in East Tennessee, the author writes about the friendship of two girls who are either best friends or enemies

147 pages, Library Binding

First published March 1, 1982

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helen Reeder Cross grew up as the daughter of a copper mine manager in the mountains of Tennessee. This book is a thinly fictionalized account of her childhood experiences, living in a tiny community of mining engineers, working Isabella Mine, near enough to communities of "mountain people" and yet completely socially separate from them. The book is set in the years 1929-1930 and is full of period details, and gentle episodic accounts of everyday life. Published in 1982, it reads a lot like something that might've been published forty years earlier. The main thread is Molly's on-again off-again jealousy of her friend Kate, the only other girl her age at Isabella Mine, and thus her friend per force rather than inclination. I quite enjoyed it.

We hear a bit about the environmental devastation wrought by the mine in a matter of fact way; it's something Molly takes for granted, and doesn't think much about. But if you google "Isabella Mine" one sees it's actually quite horrifying -- the denuded scar on the land can still be seen from space to this day.