Finalist for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. In 1904, in Wichita, Kansas, Mallie gave birth to a baby girl, whom she named Juanita (after a Spanish novel) and Wildrose (for "the most beautiful of the flowers"). So began the long life of Juanita Wildrose, who lived, vividly, every ounce and minute of her one hundred and two years. And who died, inquiring of us in the room, "Where's my mother?" Juanita, in her wonderful voice, tells the story of the little family's moving from Wichita to Elk Creek, Texas County, Missouri, to an unseen piece of land bereft of a promised house, to clear it of rocks and enough trees to grow food. Mark, Elizabeth, and Ruth are born, Papa orders newspapers and prays too long before meals, Mama will see to it that each of her children leaves the farm in order to go to school, and is inexplicably separated from the love of God. Juanita is twelve when she leaves. This is also the story of Juanita's mother and of the women who help her out after Juanita leaves home, and of a young man "with the sweetest smile I ever saw."Juanita Wildrose is just wonderful--a heap of treasure out of a living past. --Alice Munro