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    The Search for Belle Prater
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    The Search for Belle Prater
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    The Search for Belle Prater
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Search for Belle Prater

    Written by Ruth White

    Narrated by Alison Elliott

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    Belle Prater is missing. Since she inexplicably disappeared about a year ago, her son, Woodrow, has been living with his grandparents, next door to his cousin Gypsy. The two are best friends, joined by their adventurous sprits and shared love of stories and magic. One night they receive a puzzling phone call, which provides a clue that sends Gypsy and Woodrow on a mission to find Belle. Joining them is Cassie Caulborne, the new girl in school, who, like Woodrow and Gypsy, has experienced the loss of a parent. She is also endowed with a valuable gift--she knows things, things that happened in the past and reveal themselves to her in dreams. Their quest leads them out of their sheltered life in Coal Station, Virginia, and eventually back to Woodrow's home in Crooked Ridge. On the road they meet new people with their own stories to tell. One is Joseph, who has to sit at the back of the buss because he is black. The young people join him in the rear and learn that he, too, is on a search--for his father. They help one another to find what they're looking for and gain friendship along the way.


    From the Compact Disc edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 15, 2005
    ISBN9780307206329
    Author

    Ruth White

    Ruth White was born and raised in the 1940s and 1950s in and around the coal-mining town of Whitewood, Virginia. "My fondest memories are of playing in the hills and creeks, and of family read-alouds, which we had almost every day. Before I started school, I knew that I would be a writer someday, and I never wavered from that goal. What I did not know was that I would be writing about those days in which I was living. I had visions of stories involving princesses and swashbuckling heroes, lovesick cowgirls and faraway places with strange-sounding names. It was only after I grew up and away from the Appalachian region that I realized what a wealth of unique story material I had stored up in my memories during those early years, and therein lay my greatest asset as a writer." "My sisters and I were not only avid readers but also great mimics. We had no television, but we had the movie theaters close by, and we were privileged to see the latest movies from Hollywood, which we would later act out to one another. We would write down all the lines we could remember from a good movie and learn them for our own entertainment. We also picked up every song that came along and developed a remarkable repertoire of folk, country, blue-grass, spiritual, and popular music. To this day we know the words to thousands of forgotten songs. We are a wealth of music trivia! I often use the lyrics of some of these songs in my books." "Upon graduation from high school, I had a rare opportunity to go to college. It was almost as if the fates took over for me at this point and manipulated me right into a good education and preparation for a future career. There was a beautiful little college down in North Carolina called Montreat, which I still dream about and think of sometimes with a feeling much like homesickness. Going there was a turning point of my life. It lifted me out of the only life I had ever known and introduced me to a wider world. From there I went on to Pfeiffer College, married, had a child, and settled down to being a mother and teacher." "But the memories of the hills did not leave me. They did, in fact, haunt me, so that I began writing down some of those memories, and from these writings my novels sprouted, took root, and grew like living plants. They have gone through many revisions, on paper as well as in my mind, but what they represent for me is a record not only of my past but of the Appalachian region." "It is important to me that the children of today read these books and feel they can escape for just a little while into another place and time which once was very real. I want them not only to enjoy my stories and my particular style but also to feel what I used to feel when I was in the habit of reading every book I could find -- 'This feels right. I love this. Someday I will write books like this.' " Ruth White holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Library Science. She worked in schools as both a teacher and a librarian in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia before moving to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she writes full time.

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    Reviews for The Search for Belle Prater

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      As a follow-up to "Belle Prater's Boy," now Gypsy and Woodrow are determined to find out what happened to Woodrow's mother, Belle. With the help of their school friend, Cassie, and the unlikely new friend, Joseph, a black boy they meet on the bus, and his aunt, Miz Lincoln, who is a little person. The book is more about he handful of small adventures they have in the process than it is about actually finding Woodrow's mother, but it's a fine tale, well told.
    • 3/5
      This sequel to Belle Prater's Boy is very good for a sequel. She says, damning it with faint praise. It's funny, but not as funny as the first, and the messages are a little too overt for my tastes. Solid writing and satisfying ending.
    • 4/5
      Woodrow and Gypsy, cousins, set out on a search for Woodrow's mother, Belle Prater, who disappeared over a year ago under mysterious circumstances. Along the way they befriend Cassie, a newcomer to Coal Station, Va. with second sight, and Joseph, a boy they meet on the bus to Blue Field, who is looking for his own family and who happens to be black. Warm and easy, a good tale to listen to.
    • 3/5
      Belle is still missing and her son Woodrow is still missing her. In this companion to Belle Prater's Boy, Woodrow, his cousin Gypsy and their new friends work together to follow leads to try to understand the disappearance of Belle, and maybe even find her. While unraveling the mystery they encounter racial segregation, poverty of coalmining, and even a new friend who claims to have the sight. A very fun read.