Reviewed by Renee Wampler, MyShelf.Com
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This is the story of Mary Swan Middleton, an average white teenage girl growing up in the turbulent 1960's. She lives a pretty sheltered life having the perfect home and family. Her mother named her after a famous house in Atlanta called The Swan House. A magical place where you could sit and dream and forget every problem you have. A tragic accident brought Swan's sheltered world crashing around her; her precious mother had died in a plane crash.

Swan needed friends that she could lean on and help heal her pain. She looked to the life-long family housemaid, Ella Mae. She was an African American woman who knew the struggles of the present day and time. This friendship opened Swan up to the reality of her world around her and how people were being treated because of their skin color. Swan meets different people from different backgrounds and makes some new friends. I admired Swan's courage to come from such a sheltered lifestyle to overcome the hardships of the real world. The emotions expressed in the book were believable and real. This book was a realistic account of life in the 1960s. You felt a true sense of overcoming tragedy when reading this story.