{"id":6802,"date":"2010-05-19T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=6802"},"modified":"2010-05-11T10:05:49","modified_gmt":"2010-05-11T16:05:49","slug":"velva-jean-learns-to-drive-by-jennifer-niven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/velva-jean-learns-to-drive-by-jennifer-niven\/","title":{"rendered":"Velva Jean Learns to Drive by Jennifer Niven"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/velva-jean1.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6873\" title=\"velva jean\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/velva-jean1.jpg?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/velva-jean1.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/velva-jean1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>In <a href=\"http:\/\/search.prairiecat.info\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/PALS-unicorn|2150427\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Velva Jean Learns to Drive<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, ten-year-old Velva Jean dreams of someday singing at the Grand Ole Opry.\u00a0 Her plans change suddenly, though, when her daddy disappears on one of his frequent adventures and her mama falls ill and dies.\u00a0 This leaves her and her brother, Johnny Clay, in the care of a resentful older sister, with plenty of time on their hands\u00a0for mischief.\u00a0 As soon as she turns 16, Velva Jean marries the charismatic\u00a0evangelist, the Rev. Harley Bright, a moonshiner&#8217;s son and\u00a0former\u00a0fellow mischief-maker.\u00a0 All this takes place in the beautiful Appalachians in North Carolina during the 1930&#8217;s, just as the Civilian Conservation Corps is carving out the Blue Ridge Parkway right through their\u00a0mountainous backyard.\u00a0\u00a0At a time when most of her friends and neighbors had never even seen an automobile, Velva Jean somehow finds the strength to defy the\u00a0social expectations of the day and follow her own dreams.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/jennifer-niven.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6810   alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/jennifer-niven.jpg?resize=104%2C70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"104\" height=\"70\" \/><\/a>The author, Jennifer Niven, brings an authenticity to Velva Jean&#8217;s voice.\u00a0 Her own grandparents, the McJunkin&#8217;s, grew up near Asheville, and the\u00a0summers she spent visiting them. plus her own research into her family&#8217;s history, seem to have\u00a0paid off with this delightful coming-of-age novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Velva Jean Learns to Drive, ten-year-old Velva Jean dreams of someday singing at the Grand Ole Opry.\u00a0 Her plans change suddenly, though, when her daddy disappears on one of his frequent adventures and her mama falls ill and dies.\u00a0 This leaves her and her brother, Johnny Clay, in the<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/velva-jean-learns-to-drive-by-jennifer-niven\/\">[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[476,582,156,1193,1194],"class_list":["post-6802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reference","tag-family-drama","tag-great-depression","tag-growing-up","tag-north-carolina","tag-the-south"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-1LI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6802"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6872,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6802\/revisions\/6872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}