Wild Violets

Cornelia is the most important person in the forth grade. Ruthie is probably the least important. Cornelia lives in a nice house, has a nice mother, and brings her lunch to school in a real lunch box. Ruthie is so poor that she seldom has any lunch at all. She lives with her father in a barn, as her mother often gets bored and leaves them for months at a time.Everybody loves Cornelia and wants to be just like her, and nobody more so than Ruthie. Cornelia hardly knows Ruthie is alive, but she tries to be kind sometimes.And then things begin to change. "Rich" Cornelia's father gets sick and cannot work, and Cornelia's mother has to sell the house and take a job. World War II starts, and suddenly Ruthie's father sells a once-worthless field for a fine sum of money, and her mother comes home to share in it. The two girls, once so unequal, are pretty much in the same boat now, and they become friends.Then the war, which had unexpectedly given Ruthie so much, threatens to take away the one thing she wants most of all. Not even Cornelia's coveted friendship is enough to make up for it, and the heartsick girl runs away. Alone in the woods, Ruthie, who has never had much, learns to accept the loss of everything, and long before her story is over, readers will discover that this wistful heroine has won a place in their hearts, much as she wins solutions to her most pressing problems.