The Good Dream by Donna Vanliere

This is another fiction book that I read about in World Magazine.  I bought it on my Nook, and I'm so glad I did.  I know I will be reading this one again and again.

Ivorie Walker lives in a small Tennessee town on the farm she grew up on.  She is considered the town's old maid, even though she is only in her early 30's.  She was born late in her mother's life, the only girl in a family of boys, and she stayed on to care for her parents in their last years.  Her mother was always suggesting men that Ivorie could marry, but she was not interested.  Now that her parents have died, she lives in the house alone.  She works at the town's only school, and this story is set during summer vacation.  Ivorie spends her days with her dog, working in her garden and canning more food than she will ever need, giving it away to friends.

Then a widower begins to visit, and before long, Ivorie is be courted.  She enjoys it more than she ever realized she would.

One day she notices that something is getting into her garden.  At first, she thinks it's an animal, and sets a trap.  But the trap disappears, and Ivorie sits up one night with a gun, determined to find out what's going on.
What she discovers is a small, very dirty, mute little boy slipping down from the hills, stealing vegetables to stay alive.  Ivorie takes him inside and feeds him, and soon, he is coming around every few days.  Ivorie begins to wonder what is happening to him on the days he doesn't come, and finally, full of fear for the desperate child, she borrows a mule and goes up into the hills looking for him.  What she finds changes her life, and the lives of the people who live in her town.

This is a wonderful, must read book!   It is a rough story, but full of hope and redemption.