Book excerpt: This Is Graceanne's Book is the story of two impoverished children growing up along the Mississippi in 1960. The story is told by a nine-year-old boy, Charlie, who observes with an encompassing awe a pivotal year in the life of his older sister Graceanne. She's loud, intellectual and a ruthless physical and psychological daredevil, a girl whose ferocious exploits are the stuff of local legend and the stuff of all that Charlie aspires to be. He narrates Graceanne's painful passage into teenage, a passage made tempestuous by their violent mother. In P.L. Whitney's beautiful novel, the children draw their strength from the lessons of the mighty river, from a brilliant misunderstanding of their own religion, and from a growing sibling bond that turns poverty into power.