Looking for a book w/ very little info. It was a novel my 5th grade teacher read to the class in 1984 or 1985. All I know is the title was “Alee” (or contained that word) and the cover was a drawing of a girl walking in strong wind. I remember it was about a young girl making it on her own and there was a storm and tumbleweeds. It would have been a children’s or young adults book. Sorry – I know that’s not much to go on.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
A “lee” is a shelter from the wind/storm, so it’s possible that is two words ” a lee” instead of one word, ” alee”. I will help search, it sounds like an interesting book.
Probably not it at all…but in the book The Lions Paw by Robb White, the boat is called the Hard A Lee. It does have a girl and a storm, but there’s much more to the book. Still…
Long shot, but I thought of ‘Brave Irene’ by William Steig. It’s a picture book, but a long one.
I was the original poster of this question and I have an update. I found contact info for my 5th/6th grade teacher (Mrs. Wente) and I mailed her a letter. I talked about a lot of things in the letter, one of which was the book I remembered her reading. She responded right away with a lovely letter. She is 90 years old now and living in an assisted living facility (but she still has the beautiful penmanship I remember!). She seemed genuinely happy to hear from me and, surprisingly, had an answer for me about the book. She said it was probably My Antonia by Willa Cather. After reading a summary of that book, it sounds like it might be the one! Even though it turns out I was probably wrong about everything I remembered about the book, she knew which it was because she said she read that book pretty much every other year (she didn’t read it every year because she had the same students two years in a row – for 5th and 6th grade). It was read to her in her freshman year of college by a professor who strongly believed in reading aloud to children and he wanted his college students to experience it. Anyway, I just thought I’d share what I learned. I have checked the book out of the library and I’m eager to read it to see if it is, in fact, what I (think I) remember and if I like it as well as I did back then. Thanks all for the suggestions!