Against the Cottonwood Tree

It’s the year 1961, seventeen-year-old sweet innocent Isabelle Sims is sitting against the cottonwood tree dreaming about boys and what it would be like after graduating from high school. She wants to get a job to earn money for a car, but without a car she can’t get a job. She feels trapped on the farm. Isabelle’s life changes after she meets the boy of her dreams on the first day of her senior year. Her innocence is tested as she falls in love; how far should she allow her boyfriend to take her; can she show restraint when she clearly wants the same thing? Her fourteen-year-old sister Maggie, on the other hand, loves the outdoors and the quiet farm life. She sits on the opposite side of the tree reading the latest novel she checked out from the Cleary Public Library, while absently petting their shepherd dog, Casey. Henry and Caroline Sims, along with their daughters, struggle to keep the farm going as they deal with the relentless Nebraska weather that creates perils for each of them. In the fall of 1963, the family succumbs to the powering forces of Mother Nature. A Christian novel.