Grace De Soto Ferry

Crows On the Line Grace De Soto Ferry

"Crows on the Line" is Grace De Soto Ferry's second book of short stories, tall tales, some true and some not. Crows on the Line, the title story, is about her relationship with two crows that have made their home in her back yard and the communication between them. The voice of the young Mexican-American girl returns with heartwarming and entertaining stories such as The Stolen Boy, when a child is kidnapped in the Mexican neighborhood, Gorda and her friends get involved. In The Coffee Can Caper a boy is put to the test, can he be loyal to a thief. A Turkey Tale will make you laugh to learn to what extent they go for an American Thanksgiving Dinner and Mexican Movies will remind you of when you could go to the movies and stay there all day. In The Journey, a grandmother is intent on keeping her young granddaughter safe while escaping bandits and how they are helped by kind people. Esmeralda's Dreamboat, a beauty and the beast tale and The Devil's Dilemma puts a different spin on an age old story. The Killing of Pedro Ruiz is the story of an abused woman who decides she's had enough. Man Dog and Sky People are magical stories that take their flavor from the "cuentos", tales that the author heard as a child from her Mexican mother. And the Buddha Smiled is a novella in which two Mexican American girls are desperate to leave their small narrow minded town in the San Joaquin Valley and move to Los Angeles to go to college. What transpires is a story of how they reach their goals but on the way encounter situations that help them mature and realize that the ultimate responsibility for success or failure is theirs.