Velva Jean Learns to Drive (2009) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Velva Jean Hart Bright: As a young girl, Velva's one ambition in life is to one day be a singer performing at the Grand Old Opry in Tennessee. Once she reaches womanhood, she finds herself in love with Harley Bright, a local boy. Her dreams are postponed when she agrees to be his wife.
• Harley Bright: Juvenile delinquent turned evangelist
• Johnny Clay: Velva Jean's brother and the sibling she has the closest relationship with
• Sweet Fern: Velva Jean's older sister and the eldest of the Hart children. Sweet Fern and Velva Jean have a hard time seeing eye-to-eye on anything
• Lincoln Jr, (Linc), Beachard and Presley: Vekva Jean's other brothers, who seem to play a background role in her life, coming and going periodically
• Granny and Daddy Hoyt (Hoyt Justice): Velva Jean's maternal grandparents
• Lincoln Hart Sr: Velva Jean's father, who after the death of his wife, leaves to offer help building the Blue Ridge Parkway and is absent for most of Velva Jean's young life
• Danny Deal: Sweet Fern's husband
• Corinne: Daughter of Sweet Fern and Danny Deal, named after Velva Jean's mother
• Ruby Poole: Wife of Linc
• Hunter Firth: the Hart family dog
• The Woodcarver: a reclusive man that lives in an isolated spot up in the mountains; suspected to be a murderer in hiding but over time Velva Jean befriends him and sees him as just the friendly man who carves things out of wood up in the mountains
• Darlon C. Reynolds: a record executive from Decca Records who comes to Velva Jean's area and records her singing a few original songs
• Lucinda Sink: a local prostitute that Johnny Clay falls in love with and persistently offers marriage proposals to
• "Aunt"Junie: a local mountain woman known for her knowledge in "mountain medicine", country remedies to ailments
• Levi: Johnny Bright's father
• Butch: a drifter working with the Parkway that Velva Jean befriends over their mutual love of music

Quotes edit see section history

• “And remember - there is a difference between running FROM something and running TO something. Never run from something, if you can help it.”

  The Woodcarver

• “I guessed Sweet Fern's purpose was to have babies and make my life miserable. My momma's purpose had been to love and be loved.”

  Velva Jean contemplating one's purpose in life

• “I've been on the road awhile now. Before that, I sat at home for a long time and waited for something to happen to me, but nothing ever did - not the big things I expected or wanted. I knew what I wanted my life to be, but it wasn't turning out that way. Then I figured it out - if my destiny wasn't going to come to me, I had to go to it.”

  Butch

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Western North Carolina: Asheville, Waynesville, Weaverville, Spruce Pine, Linville, Black Mountain, Toe River Valley, Dillsboro, Swain County
• Blue Ridge Parkway: Devil's Courthouse, Mt Pisgah, Linville Falls, Grandfather Mtn, Cold Mtn, Bald Mtn, Mt Mitchell, Little Switzerland, Butcher Gap
• Georgia
• South Carolina
• Tennessee: Franklin, Nashville, Grand Old Opry
• Virginia
• Kentucky
• Trail of Tears

Organizations edit see section history

• Grand Ole Opry: wikipedia: The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee that has presented the biggest stars of the genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM.<1><2> Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of legends and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, folk, comedy, and gospel.<3> Considered an American icon, it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and Internet listeners. The Opry, today part of the American landscape, is "the show that made country music famous"<4> and has been called the "home of American music" and "country’s most famous stage
• Asheville Citizen-Times: wikipedia: The Asheville Citizen-Times is a Gannett newspaper based in Asheville, North Carolina, U.S.A.. It was formed on July 1, 1991 as a result of the merger of the morning Asheville Citizen and the afternoon Asheville Times.Founded in 1870 as a weekly, the Citizen became a daily newspaper in 1885. Writers Thomas Wolfe, O. Henry, both buried in Asheville, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, a common visitor of Asheville, frequently could be found in the newsroom in earlier days. In 1930 the Citizen came under common ownership with the Times, which was first established in 1896 as the Asheville Gazette. The latter paper merged with a short-lived rival, the Asheville Evening News, to form the Asheville Gazette-News and was renamed The Asheville Times by new owner Charles A. Webb. In 1986, $12 million was invested in offset printing presses and a new 44,000-square-foot (4,100 m2) production building in nearby Enka, with composed pages transmitted electronically from the downtown Asheville building located nine miles (14 km) away. In April 1997, the Citizen-Times became the first daily newspaper in Western North Carolina to launch a website; the site now receives tens of thousands of hits a day.In Jan 2009, the press was shut down and shortly after sold off as scrap metal. Now the A C-T is printed in Greenville along side the Greenville News and shipped to a distribution center.
• Huguenots: wikipedia: The Huguenots (French pronunciation: <yɡno>; English: /ˈhjuːɡənɒt/, /huːɡəˈnoʊ/) were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France (or French Calvinists) from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Since the seventeenth century, Huguenots have been commonly designated "French Protestants," the title being suggested by their German co-religionists or "Calvinists." Protestants in France were inspired by the writings of John Calvin in the 1530s and the name Huguenots was already in use by the 1560s. By the end of the 17th century, roughly 200,000 Huguenots had been driven from France during a series of religious persecutions. They relocated primarily in England, Switzerland, the Dutch Republic, the German Electorate of Prussia, the German Palatinate, and elsewhere in Northern Europe, as well as to what is now South Africa and to North America.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Haints: ghosts or spirits
• Dulcimer: wikipedia: The Appalachian dulcimer (or mountain dulcimer) is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States. The body extends the length of the fingerboard, and its fretting is generally diatonic.
• Autoharp: wikipedia: The autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither.
• Tsul Kalu: wikipedia: Tsul 'Kalu (the slant-eyed or sloping giant), is a legendary figure in Cherokee mythology who serves the role of "the great lord of the game", and as such is frequently invoked in hunting rites and rituals.<1> Tsul 'Kalu is also believed by some to be the Cherokee version of Sasquatch or Bigfoot because he seems to share several physical and behavioral traits with the creature.
• nunnehi: small native american spirits or changelings

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Sacrificial Love: Velva Jean postpones her dreams of singing at the Opry when she meets and marries Harley Bright, a local preacher.
• Keep your dreams alive.: Though Velva Jean gets caught up in everyday life and focuses on being a good wife to Harley, her dream of going to the Opry never really leaves her.
• Grief and mouring: Velva Jean is profoundly affected by the death of her mother early on in the story. Other characters later in the story explore a similar type of grief when they lose loved ones

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Velva Jean Learns to Fly.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jennifer Niven (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Very interesting overview of the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway, mountains and mtn people while also telling a great story

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary