grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Publishing
  • SHOP!
  • Garden
  • Food
  • Reading & Books
  • Sunday Letter

The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee (Trade Paperback / Illustrated)

September 17, 2021 By

Gracie Lee
The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee (Trade Paperback / Illustrated) - Image 2

$18.99

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ One Mississippi Press LLC (January 1, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 331 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1951418034
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1951418038
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.26 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.83 x 9 inches
  • Chapter Illustrations by John R. Boerner

Signed and personalized by the author.

Category: Book
  • Description
  • Additional information

Description

In this award-winning, coming-of-age novel, ten-year-old Gracie Lee struggles to make sense out of her life as an Arkansas farm girl in the early 1970s. Wise beyond her age yet imbued with child-like innocence, Gracie focuses on the three things that keep her awake at night:

1. Solving the mystery of the man in the gray house;
2. Surviving another school year at Savage Crossing Elementary; and,
3. Saving her alcoholic Daddy from himself (and thereby saving the whole family and wider world).

Gracie feels certain there is more to life beyond school and dull church sermons. She worries about the soldiers in Vietnam and wonders what it must be like to have been born Lisa Marie Presley from Tennessee instead of Gracie Lee Abbott from Arkansas. Mostly, she wishes her Daddy wasn’t so mean.

Gracie’s unchecked imagination leads to Nancy Drew-type adventure. Adventure leads to trouble. She confides in unexpected characters and seeks solace in a mysterious gray house beyond the cotton field. When Gracie faces a difficult family situation, she must make a life-altering decision, one that will test the very essence of her character.

“At best, most first novels indicate potential. It would be wrong to say that, when reading Talya Tate Boerner’s The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, I was amazed. There’s magic here, in a wonderfully-told story that will find a special place in any reader’s heart.” ~ Jeff Guinn, New York Times bestselling author.

“Boerner’s prose is a wonderful medium for unspooling Gracie’s story, imbued with all the snark, wonder, and colorful details that characterize childhood… The author addresses real, high-stakes issues without slathering them in melodrama or saccharine sentimentality, and her book hearkens back to an older YA tradition of stories of plucky preteen girls, spooky houses, and inevitable tragedies that help mark the turning point from childhood to adolescence. A stirring novel with a distinctive young narrator.”  ~ Kirkus Reviews

Additional information

Weight 1.26 lbs
Dimensions 6 × 0.83 × 9 in

Related products

  • Gene Everywhere

    Gene, Everywhere: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (Trade Paperback)

    $18.99
    Add to cart
  • Gracie Lee

    The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee (2nd Edition Hardback / Illustrated)

    $28.99
    Add to cart
  • The Third Act of Theo Gruene (Trade Paperback)

    The Third Act of Theo Gruene (Trade Paperback)

    $18.99
    Add to cart
  • Gene Everywhere

    Gene, Everywhere: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (1st Edition Hardback)

    $28.99
    Add to cart


Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Sunday Letter: May 4, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Rainy Day Edition
  • Spiderwort: my love-hate relationship
  • Sunday Letter: March 23, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: March 16, 2025

Never miss a blog post! Subscribe via email:

Looking for something?

Categories

All the Things!

A to Z April Blog Challenge Autumn BAT Book Reviews childhood Christmas creative writing prompt Dallas Desserts Fall Fayetteville Food Gracie Lee Halloween Hemingway-Pfeiffer holiday recipes home humor Johnson Family Keiser Lake Norfork Lucy and Annabelle Mississippi County Mississippi Delta Monarch butterflies Munger Place Nana nature Northeast Arkansas Northwest Arkansas Osceola poem Reading Schnauzer simple living simple things spring spring gardening Summer Talya Tate Boerner novel Thanksgiving The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee Thomas Tate Winter Wordless Wednesday

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!

All content and photos Copyright Grace, Grits and Gardening © 2025 · Web Hosting By StrataByte