Mama's Chicken & Dumplings
Forthcoming from Margaret Ferguson Books
Summer 2024
Set in Vinegar Hill, a thriving African-American business and residential area of Charlottesville, VA, during the 1930s of the Jim Crow era, Allie wants more than anything to have an unbroken life, and so she devises a Man-for-Mama Plan, a scheme to find her Mama a good man to marry. With her Daddy Map in one hand and a jar of chicken and dumplings in the other, she sets on a quest within her neighborhood to locate the perfect fix-it-man–one who kind-smiles, who knows how to sing, and who loves her mama’s chicken and dumplings. But when Mama starts having eyes for Mr. Coles, her band teacher and uncle of her NOT-friend Gwen, Allie realizes it may be her plan that’s broken.
Historical fiction, as you know, requires a ton of research to get the details right, and because Vinegar Hill was razed in the 1960s in the name of urban renewal and development the research was all the more important. Below is a link to my bibliography, in case you'd like to uncover the same rich history I found so inspiring and fascinating.
| MAMA'S CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS Bibliography |
Keep up with the latest MAMA'S CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS news by visiting The 24/7s, a debut group featuring seven middle-grade novelists with books forthcoming in 2024.