SOLVED. YA fiction. “Box of Dolls” or similar in title, read mid to late 1990s. Midwest US farm/ranch,mother has mental breakdown, young girl steps up to run farm. [s]

[Satyaa]

Midwest US farm/ranch. Young girl around 10 or 11 is treated roughly by her mother who is not smart and probably mentally ill. Girl has to take on work of farm wife, feed the workers. Mother keeps a box of dolls under bed, 1 for each miscarriage, stillbirth, infant death. Mother uses the word “Fronty” for girls private bits, to distinguish from “hiney.”

[Capn]

The Box Children?

"The Box Children is the story of the summer Lou Ann turns twelve. It takes its title from five tiny dolls she names after babies her mother has miscarried. They keep one another company in an old shoe box she has fixed up. Now Lou Ann's mother is pregnant again, but Lou Ann can already sense that something is wrong. And as her mother's grasp on reality slips away, she's got only her own wits and courage to rely on."

etc. First pub. 2002
OpenLibrary text search: "dolls" "fronty" "hiney"

[Satyaa]

Yes That’s it! How did you do that search? I’ve been googling for seems like years and never got anywhere.

[Capn]

OpenLibrary has this really handy feature where, if you are certain of the specific terms used, you can search their entire library texts by keyword (!!! The power is awesome, assuming the book in question has been scanned, of course!):
https://openlibrary.org/search
Drop-down search field gives options (select 'Text'), and then keywords (in quotations, separated by comma).

It's your memory that did it - "hiney" and "fronty" and the correct spelling and all. ;)

[Tracy]

Thank you for posting. Thanks to this I found a book I have been searching for years, I couldn't remember the title, I've tried other forums and this link is the only one that found it immediately.

[Capn]

Tracy wrote: "Thank you for posting. Thanks to this I found a book I have been searching for years, I couldn't remember the title, I've tried other forums and this link is the only one that found it immediately."

Oh that's wonderful! :D Congrats - such a good feeling, eh? :) Happy to help!