Deborah Ronna Baker's The Porch Down Home chronicles the life of seventeen-year-old Avie and her sister, Cassie, who live in the Midwest with their beloved grandparents, Bigmomma and Bigdaddy. Avie and Cassie have been taught right from wrong by their young-at-heart grandparents, but that doesn't stop Avie from getting into mischief every once in a while, like the time she 'borrows' a stash of Bigdaddy's healing herb to use for her science project. But Bigdaddy will soon be thankful, for a summer storm destroys seemingly all of the precious herb one night-all but Avie's stash in the meadow. The Porch Down Home offers a cast of characters as different as night and day that will become like part of your own family, from nosy Cora Lee and the stuttering Lester brothers to Big Sally the bully and shy but sweet Chase. From the schoolhouse to the nickel and dime, join these Midwest characters in discovering that life is best lived on The Porch Down Home. The author creates a real world peopled with characters-even animals-that are so lively, colorful, and vivid they become your next-door neighbors. No-closer than that; they're like family! -Mary Frances Stubbs, Director of Development for the College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences, and Advisor of Film and Literary Projects, Howard University