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American Regional
Blue Ridge Billy
A young boy dreams of music and sunshine in the Great Smoky Mountains
As far as Billy is concerned, there’s no sight more beautiful than the sun setting over the Blue Ridge Mountains. When the day is done, he sneaks away from his work to watch the sun go down. If his father knew, he would call Billy lazy, but Mama would understand. She knows life in the mountains is hard and that there’s no point in living if a person can’t take time to appreciate what he has. Billy dreams of the day when he can pick up his fiddle and sing the folk songs of his people. Until then, he will be content with the sun.
This beautifully written novel tells a story of simple fun and irresistible pleasures in 1 of the most beautiful regions in the United States.
As far as Billy is concerned, there’s no sight more beautiful than the sun setting over the Blue Ridge Mountains. When the day is done, he sneaks away from his work to watch the sun go down. If his father knew, he would call Billy lazy, but Mama would understand. She knows life in the mountains is hard and that there’s no point in living if a person can’t take time to appreciate what he has. Billy dreams of the day when he can pick up his fiddle and sing the folk songs of his people. Until then, he will be content with the sun.
This beautifully written novel tells a story of simple fun and irresistible pleasures in 1 of the most beautiful regions in the United States.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
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202 people want to read
About the author
Lois Lenski
217Ìýbooks190ÌýfollowersMany of Lenski's books can be collated into 'series' - but since they don't have to be read in order, you may be better off just looking for more information here:
Probably her most famous set is the following:
American Regional Series
Beginning with Bayou Suzette in 1943, Lois Lenski began writing a series of books which would become known as her "regional series." In the early 1940s Lenski, who suffered from periodic bouts of ill-health, was told by her doctor that she needed to spend the winter months in a warmer climate than her Connecticut home. As a result, Lenski and her husband Arthur Covey traveled south each fall. Lenski wrote in her autobiography, "On my trips south I saw the real America for the first time. I saw and learned what the word region meant as I witnessed firsthand different ways of life unlike my own. What interested me most was the way children were living" (183).
In Journey Into Childhood, Lenski wrote that she was struck by the fact that there were "plenty of books that tell how children live in Alaska, Holland, China, and Mexico, but no books at all telling about the many ways children live here in the United States"
Bayou Suzette.
Strawberry Girl.
Blue Ridge Billy.
Judy's Journey.
Boom Town Boy.
Cotton in My Sack.
Texas Tomboy.
Prairie School.
Corn-Farm Boy.
San Francisco Boy.
Flood Friday.
Houseboat Girl.
Coal Camp Girl.
Shoo-Fly Girl.
To Be a Logger.
Deer Valley Girl.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 3, 2016
This is the second book I have read in Lois Lenski's regional books for children.
This one broke my heart a little bit and I'm not sure how to feel about Billy's father but maybe that was Lenski's point? These people are very raw and real and men like Billy's father are everywhere. As a reader, I would have liked a cleaner ending where the father was concerned but as a human, I totally appreciate the reality and the manner in which Lenski portrayed the father.
Little Blue Ridge Billy Honeycutt is a darling boy and I just know he will stand out in my mind as a very memorable character for many years to come.
This one broke my heart a little bit and I'm not sure how to feel about Billy's father but maybe that was Lenski's point? These people are very raw and real and men like Billy's father are everywhere. As a reader, I would have liked a cleaner ending where the father was concerned but as a human, I totally appreciate the reality and the manner in which Lenski portrayed the father.
Little Blue Ridge Billy Honeycutt is a darling boy and I just know he will stand out in my mind as a very memorable character for many years to come.
December 11, 2014
I'm glad there was a happy, friendly ending. Most of the book seemed like it would turn out to be of the same piece as Cotton in my Sack and Bayou Suzette or even worse. They're just rather depressing books. My family was watching an Andy Griffith show episode with some hillbillies and my siblings laughed at their attitudes, but I told them this book was like those people and they couldn't really believe it. I like to read about real people in the different regions of the U.S., and Ms. Lenski had a good idea, but it seems to be a fact that if you stick really closely to real life in those regions, you'll probably find more downer stuff than overly wonderful stuff. I begin to see why Strawberry Girl won an award and the others didn't, though, too; its attitude is a bit different from the others'. Dare I put forth my opinion that it's because the Boyers read and own and live by the Bible, with even a mention of intention, while the folks in the other books are not mentioned in real connection with living religion?
September 28, 2022
this is absolutely a children’s book that i had to read for class but. i loved it. a *for the most part* accurate representation of appalachia!!
June 8, 2010
This is the third book in Lois Lenski's American Regional Series. Billy Honeycutt lives in the far northwest corner of North Carolina near the Tennessee border. He is ten years old, living and working on the family farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The family grows chickens, corn and vegetables, but Billy's father can't stand being tied down to farming. He considers himself a hunter and logger, leaving most of the farm work to his wife and children. Billy is the second oldest of four children and likes music more than anything, but his father thinks musicians are lazy, unreliable people when it comes to all the hard work necessary to stay alive in the mountains.
The story follows Billy as he pursues his musical dreams and tries to get around his stern father. He finds allies in his mother (who comes from a fiddling family), Granny Trivett (a healer and herb gatherer who may be more than 100 years old and teaches Billy the old Scottish ballads), as well as his Uncle Pozy (who weaves baskets, plays the dulcimer and can cook a delicious roast possum.)
It is a wonderfully told story which brings to life the peoples and times of Southern mountain living in the early 20th century. Being a former folksinger and a fan of roots music, I loved getting this look at country life in the South, way before country music was cool.
The family grows chickens, corn and vegetables, but Billy's father can't stand being tied down to farming. He considers himself a hunter and logger, leaving most of the farm work to his wife and children. Billy is the second oldest of four children and likes music more than anything, but his father thinks musicians are lazy, unreliable people when it comes to all the hard work necessary to stay alive in the mountains.
The story follows Billy as he pursues his musical dreams and tries to get around his stern father. He finds allies in his mother (who comes from a fiddling family), Granny Trivett (a healer and herb gatherer who may be more than 100 years old and teaches Billy the old Scottish ballads), as well as his Uncle Pozy (who weaves baskets, plays the dulcimer and can cook a delicious roast possum.)
It is a wonderfully told story which brings to life the peoples and times of Southern mountain living in the early 20th century. Being a former folksinger and a fan of roots music, I loved getting this look at country life in the South, way before country music was cool.
August 17, 2019
Meh.
I have got to stop trying to read Lenski's stuff. Though the illustrations are better in this book, she still deals in condescending stereotypes and her narration is still scrappy, though at least in this instalment there is a wobbly story line: Billy's desire for a banjo.
Lenski started out writing Billy's father as a puritanical tyrant who only likes "hymn singin'" as one character says, but she seemed to lose track of that idea and simply made him a tyrannical bully who is absent most of the time and apparently has no religious feelings one way or the other. The father repeatedly asks his wife and kids what they think he has them for, if not to do the work? He's a hunter and a logger--how can they possibly expect him to stick around home and take care of his family? How unreasonable of them! He is also mean and cruel, even for a time and place where "lickin's" were the norm for real or imagined disobedience on the part of children, both boys and girls. The dulcimer incident and the business about the hound pup make the father's sudden, total transformation completely unbelievable. (It is, however, a recurring trope in Lenski's novels, such as .) From being "sarcastic", "cold" and "sneering", Lenski's totally incredible turnaround tries to make him into a chuckling Santa Claus figure. The sad part is that I remember how some of my elementary school teachers just loved these books. Of course that was in the 60s, and many of them were already in their fifties.
I have read several of Lenski's books, hoping I would find one I actually like. No luck so far.
Sigh. I have got to stop doing this to myself.
I have got to stop trying to read Lenski's stuff. Though the illustrations are better in this book, she still deals in condescending stereotypes and her narration is still scrappy, though at least in this instalment there is a wobbly story line: Billy's desire for a banjo.
Lenski started out writing Billy's father as a puritanical tyrant who only likes "hymn singin'" as one character says, but she seemed to lose track of that idea and simply made him a tyrannical bully who is absent most of the time and apparently has no religious feelings one way or the other. The father repeatedly asks his wife and kids what they think he has them for, if not to do the work? He's a hunter and a logger--how can they possibly expect him to stick around home and take care of his family? How unreasonable of them! He is also mean and cruel, even for a time and place where "lickin's" were the norm for real or imagined disobedience on the part of children, both boys and girls. The dulcimer incident and the business about the hound pup make the father's sudden, total transformation completely unbelievable. (It is, however, a recurring trope in Lenski's novels, such as .) From being "sarcastic", "cold" and "sneering", Lenski's totally incredible turnaround tries to make him into a chuckling Santa Claus figure. The sad part is that I remember how some of my elementary school teachers just loved these books. Of course that was in the 60s, and many of them were already in their fifties.
I have read several of Lenski's books, hoping I would find one I actually like. No luck so far.
Sigh. I have got to stop doing this to myself.
December 3, 2022
I don’t know how I missed this series of books when I was younger but now that I discovered them I am truly enjoying them.
This book is just one title in a series of about seventeen (17) books written in the mid 1900’s about life the way it was in the early part of that century up to mid-century, depending on the particular book. Each book introduces the reader to a family group living in a particular region of the nation and working within an occupation prevalent to that region. Although the stories are not biographies the author lived and worked closely with members of each region before writing the relevant book and each story is comprised of events that truly happened.
This particular story takes place in the Appalachian mountains around the Virginia, North Carolina border and the focus of the story is on Billy a youth in his tweens. The author presents to the reader examples of a typical life of a southern Appalachian mountain family during the early half of the century: from the hardscrabble experience of planting and growing meager crops in that particular terrain, to widespread foraging for herbs as another livelihood, to property disputes, to thriftiness with resources, to the problems of moonshiners in the region, to the mountain folks� love of music.
Those who have enjoyed reading books in “The Little House� series by Laura Ingalls Wilder should also enjoy this series of books.
This book is just one title in a series of about seventeen (17) books written in the mid 1900’s about life the way it was in the early part of that century up to mid-century, depending on the particular book. Each book introduces the reader to a family group living in a particular region of the nation and working within an occupation prevalent to that region. Although the stories are not biographies the author lived and worked closely with members of each region before writing the relevant book and each story is comprised of events that truly happened.
This particular story takes place in the Appalachian mountains around the Virginia, North Carolina border and the focus of the story is on Billy a youth in his tweens. The author presents to the reader examples of a typical life of a southern Appalachian mountain family during the early half of the century: from the hardscrabble experience of planting and growing meager crops in that particular terrain, to widespread foraging for herbs as another livelihood, to property disputes, to thriftiness with resources, to the problems of moonshiners in the region, to the mountain folks� love of music.
Those who have enjoyed reading books in “The Little House� series by Laura Ingalls Wilder should also enjoy this series of books.
January 17, 2018
This was the last of the American Regional series I read and to be honest, it was a bit of a chore. I've picked it up several times over the last year or so but it hasn't held my attention the way some of the others have. I think my love for mountain literature made my expectations too high. In any case, the story has Lenski's usual tone of realistic sadness but it was pleasing that it was one of the ones where positive changes were made.
November 19, 2021
I live in the next county over from where this book is set. The language, setting, and events were very familiar to me having heard stories like this my whole life. A delightful young adult book!
February 9, 2023
This is definitely one of the best books of Lois Lenski's Regional series. The story was entertaining and I must admit, so was the glossary of mountain dialect she included.
May 9, 2011
Lois Lenski is perhaps best known today as the illustrator of the first four Betsy-Tacy books, but in the 1940's and '50's she was better known as the Newbery Award-Winning Author of _Strawberry Girl_. _Blue Ridge Billy_, another in the series of regional fiction, takes place in the mountains of Ashe County, North Carolina. Billy Honeycutt knows his strict father, called Pappy, would not be happy with his eagerness to spend time learning to play a homemade dulcimer, but he did not expect that he would throw it in the fireplace or that he would spend the money Billy is saving to buy a banjo. He fears that Pap is secretly involved with an illegal still. But Billy's Mammy, in her quiet way, manages to stand up to her husband, and helps Billy solve his problems in an unexpected way. The speech of the characters is written in a distinctive dialect, but there is a glossary in the back of "Mountain Words and Phrases." Billy and his friend Sarey Sue (who with her Granny Pappy calls "the troublesomest pair in the mountains") are sympathetic characters, but children unfamiliar with the dialect may have trouble reading it.
A foreword by the author explains her attempts to get inside the cultures of which she writes, and to express the vivid local language of each region. Other books in this series are _Cotton in My Sack_ and _Bayou Suzette.
A foreword by the author explains her attempts to get inside the cultures of which she writes, and to express the vivid local language of each region. Other books in this series are _Cotton in My Sack_ and _Bayou Suzette.
November 19, 2015
Blue Ridge Billy (American Regional Series) by Lois Lenski (J.P. Lippincott 1941)(Fiction - Children's). This is the third volume in the author's Newberry Award winning series. The author wrote a series which apparently generalized and trivialized regional differences in America ("Blue Ridge Billy" grew up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, "Cajun Cathy" was from Louisiana, etc.). It is hopelessly dated. My rating: 4/10, finished 7/24/14.
January 5, 2010
This was one of my favourite childhood (boyhood) books. I was 11. It is filled with adventure and strong character development in a colourful setting. It does what a young-adult novel should do -- introduce the reader to someone new in different circumstances and to another place. And leave a strong impression.
December 23, 2016
Set in southwestern Virginia in the early 20th century. Mountain people gathering "yarbs," moonshine, family strife. Lenski doesn't sugarcoat the hardships.
P.S. A quilting reference: when you sleep under a new quilt your dream will come true.
P.S. A quilting reference: when you sleep under a new quilt your dream will come true.
May 22, 2012
If you can get your hands on a copy of this book I highly recommend it! My kids when we were finished said, is there more Billy? This was a quite enjoyable read for the whole family.
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