We Are All Welcome Here

I would never choose to be 13 again – that prickly and ultra-sensitive age between middle and high school. It is, however, the voice of young teen Diana Dunn that defines this story and captures your heart.

Her mother Paige was crippled by polio shortly before Diana’s birth and abandoned by her husband not long thereafter. She is determined to live without self-pity and raise Diana herself. They barely get by on public assistance, lying about having a nighttime caregiver to get a little extra cash from the social worker.

Peacie, who is as much friend as nurse, gets them through the days in her blunt but caring fashion. When Peacie’s man is injured working with the 1964 Summer of Freedom movement, Diana finally understands how racial prejudice affects their lives. Diana both loves her mother without measure and resents the limits her mother’s illness places on their lives.

In less skillful hands, this could be a predictable, treacly tale. Berg’s deft characterization and narrative style makes this coming-of-age tale a delight.

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