Crum, Shutta. Spitting image

Crum, Shutta. Spitting image. Clarion, 2003 [0-618-23477-2]
It is summer in a small town in Kentucky in the late 1960s and Jessie is about to learn about life. She lives with her mom and doesn't know anything about her father. Her colorful grandmother visits although they don't get along very well. The whole summer changes when a volunteer shows up in the county to help the President with his war on poverty. She asks Jessie to be her guide. The volunteer succeeds in getting most everyone angry with her. Jessie tries to discover who her father is... and both the reader and Jessie are surprised at the circumstances of her birth and who her father is. Jessie does a lot of growing up in this 218 page book centered on a small Kentucky town described beautifully by the author.