Carolyn Reeder è stata un'autrice americana celebrata per il suo distintivo stile letterario e le sue profonde intuizioni sulla storia. La sua eredità si basa principalmente su romanzi storici per bambini, che danno vita al passato in modo coinvolgente ed educativo. Oltre alla letteratura per l'infanzia, ha esplorato anche temi di saggistica per adulti, concentrandosi sulla bellezza naturale e la storia del Parco Nazionale di Shenandoah insieme a suo marito. Le sue opere sono apprezzate per la loro capacità di fondere istruzione e intrattenimento, offrendo ai lettori nuove prospettive.
At the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Will, having lost all his immediate family, reluctantly leaves his city home to live in the Virginia countryside with his aunt and the uncle he considers a "traitor" because he refused to take part in the war
Twelve-year-old Tom Higgins is learning the craft of making whiskey. Even though Prohibition forbids the production and sale of alcoholic beverages, Tom is determined to be a good apprentice. He is, after all, a moonshiner's son. His father has raised moonshining to an art, and Tom wants nothing more than to please this rough, distant man.Then a preacher comes to the wilds of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains to rid Bad Camp Hollow of the "evils of liquor." This is when Tom and his father begin their campaign to match wits with the preacher and try to outsmart the law officers he calls in. Tom's father is eloquent in defense of a way of life long and respectfully lived by the Higgins family. But the preacher and his pretty daughter make a powerful case against it. And when drink causes a tragedy in the community, Tom Higgins is torn....