Up a Creek

A thoughtful coming-of-age novel about a young woman struggling to connect with her eccentric mother.

"I picked up my poster, raising it so everyone could see that if they chopped down these old oak trees, they'd be killing the South as well. I held it high like I meant it, and I walked around Oak Square forty-six more times that day, till all that was left of the sun was a buttery smear in the sky."

Miracle Bott's activism is a constant embarrassment to her thirteen year old daughter, Starshine. Why does Miracle spend all her time fighting causes? And how can Starshine's grandmother remain so supportive? After all, the 60's were a long time ago.

First Miracle tries to save the whales, then the ozone layer, and now it's the old oak trees in the town square. But when Miracle decides to protect one of the oaks by living in it, she may have gone too far--too far for the mayor, the community, and especially her daughter. Now Starshine must find a way to make Miracle come down from the tree before their relationship becomes a lost cause.

In her warm, evocative style, Laura Williams explores the relationships between three generations of women struggling to find connections.