Product Description

Tiger Ann Parker is smart in school and good at baseball, but she's forever teased about her family by the girls in class. Tiger Ann knows her folks are different from others in their small town of Saitter, Louisiana. They are mentally slow, and Tiger Ann keeps her pain and embarrassment hidden as long as her strong and smart Granny runs the household. Then Granny dies suddenly and Aunt Dorie Kay arrives, offering Tiger Ann a way out. Now Tiger Ann must make the most important decision of her life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #151312 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-11
• Released on: 2000-01-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this "unusually auspicious debut," a girl living in a small Louisiana town in 1957 must choose whether to care for her mentally slow parents or to move in with a glamorous aunt in Baton Rouge. "The author presents and handles a sticky dilemma with remarkable grace," said PW in a starred review. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-9-Set in the South in the late 1950s, this coming-of-age story explores a 12-year-old girl's struggle to accept her grandmother's death, her mentally deficient parents, and the changing world around her. By Kimberly Willis Holt.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
In her first YA novel, Holt gives a fresh theme sensitive and deliberate treatment: The bright child of ``slow'' parents comes to terms with her family's place in the community. Tiger Ann Parker is smart; she's gotten straight A's and won the spelling bee five years in a row. People in her rural 1950s Louisiana community can't figure out where she got her brains, because everyone knows that her parents, are mentally challenged. Her mother has the capabilities of a six-year-old, while her father, a good steady worker at the nursery down the road, can't manage writing or simple math. Tiger loves her parents, but as she enters middle school she becomes increasingly aware that she's socially ostracized by her classmates; her affection for her family becomes mixed with shame and anger at their differences. When Tiger's loving grandmother, who has always run the household, has a fatal heart attack, Tiger is invited to live with her glamorous Aunt Doreen in Baton Rouge. Tempted to move away and reinvent herself, Tiger ultimately comes to appreciate her parents' strengths and her own as well. Tiger, with her warring feelings, is a believable and likable narrator, and while the offerings of big-city living are too patly rejected, a well-developed setting and fully-realized characters make this an unusually strong coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Southern sweetness
Ignorance is bliss for Tiger Ann Parker, growing up in rural Louisiana during the 1950s.

She knows that her parents, who are mentally challenged, are a little different from other people's parents. Her feisty grandmother shields Tiger from the unkind comments of other people, and makes sure that Tiger's physical and mental needs are met.

But things are changing for Tiger. Some snotty town girls begin to mock her family and ostracize her, while her best buddy Jesse is starting to view her as more than a friend. The sudden death of Tiger's grandmother sends her whole world toppling. Who will take care of her now?

Her sophisticated aunt's life in Baton Rouge is tempting; Tiger even visits with thoughts of staying permanently. Yet she feels out of place in the big city, and realizes that her true home is back with her parents, who love her and who possess strengths that she has never known about.

This novel includes great details of time and place, including TV as a novelty, Hepburn haircuts, and a pink tiled bathroom! And while some of the novel's turning points seem a bit contrived, there is a heart and a sweetness which make this southern story one to savor.

Jason Novel
My Louisiana Sky by Kimberly Willis Holt

This book is about a girl named Tiger Ann Parker who lives in the small town of Saitter, Louisiana. She may seem like a regular girl except for one thing, her parents are both mentally slow. She gets teased at school by the other kids and her only friend is Jesse Wade. When he starts to get feelings for her, she feels like she is in a completely different universe. She can't talk to Jesse Wade anymore, so her grandmother is the only one she can talk to. When her grandmother suddenly dies, her Aunt Dorie Kay comes to visit her and Tiger is faced with the decision of a lifetime. Will she stay in small town Saitter with her family and friends or try to start over new in the big city of Baton Rouge with her aunt? Read this book to find out! Personally, I thought this book was excellent. I really got into it on the first page. It is one of the best books I have read in a while.
Megan S
Age 11

Your Nose Will Be Stuck In This Book!
I thought the novel "My Louisiana Sky" has a great plot. I should say it is in between historical fiction and suspense. The story is about a girl named Tiger that lives in Saitter, Louisiana. She's great in school but her parents are slow. For many years Tiger did not know what was wrong with her mother untill her aunt tells her the tragic news. Through this novel, Tiger deals with her problems very well and pulls through her goods times and bad times. I think that it would be hard for you to put this book down for even a minute! That is why i gave this novel 5 stars. Some people I know thought this novel was boring, but I say you would enjoy this book very much!