Amidst Hope and Hardship: A Depression Era Summer: 1934

Thirteen-year-old Rose and her young sisters have never had much to fear when it comes to the Depression that raged around them. Their father still works for a car company; they have a roof over their heads; and they assist their mother in charities to help those less fortunate than themselves. However, nothing is certain in the country's hard times. In the blink of an eye, the life they know is upended when their father loses his job and the bank calls in their loan, forcing the family to sell off everything they don't need. To keep the girls from living on the streets or standing in breadlines like thousands of others, Rose, Violet, and Iris are sent off to spend the summer with their Aunt Jeanie. Steadily, Rose begins to settle into life on her aunt's farm: helping with chores, working in the garden, tending the vegetable stand, and keeping her sisters out of trouble as best she can. Through the diary entries and narrative storytelling in Amidst Hope and Hardship: Rose's Diary, first in The Farmhouse Diaries series, we see the world of 1934 through Rose's eyes as she embarks on daily adventures, learns about family bonds, experiences chances to forgive, and discovers that amidst hardship there is also hope.