Fourteen-year-old Martha Mary Overstreet only dreams of 
becoming a doctor until she writes an essay about "women having 
a say in their own lives, like choosing whether or not to get 
married or have children"—and begins to realize that she can have 
"a say" in her own life. She doesn't win the DAR essay contest, 
but she comes to the attention of Dr. Klinefelder, the Mayfield 
physician.

    In 1888 in Mayfield, Texas, a girl lives in her parents' home 
until she marries or becomes a teacher. But Marty, the oldest of 
six children, sees her mother exhausted by child-bearing and the 
unpredictability of cotton farming, and Marty won't begin that life 
without fighting for an education and the chance to be a doctor. Dr. 
Klinefelder encourages her to attend a nursing school opening in 
Galveston, but Marty is determined not to settle for anything less 
than her dream—until Billy Washburn kisses her, and Marty feels 
"everything inside of [her] tighten up and go hot."

_________________________________________________________

MARY PENSON lives in Arlington Texas. She is the author of two 
other novels, both published by TCU Press: You're an Orphan, Mollie 
Brown, and Billy Bardin and the Witness Tree.


A Chaparral Book for Young Readers