In a Valley Surrounded by Hills: Stories of Growing Up in a Pennsylvania Town

Don Skinner's new memoir of growing up in northwest Pennsylvania in the 1930s and '40s is is a must-have for folks with a small-town upbringing, those with a passing interest in community life of half a century ago, or anyone looking for a lovely, comforting, satisfying book. This chronicle is often laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes throat-catchingly poignant, and always vividly and expertly presented. The most striking aspect this book is Skinner's incredible imagery: whether he is describing an unanticipated trip down Main Street attached by his snowsuit to the bumper of a Model T Ford, or an impoverished African-American man plucking lumps of coal from the floodwaters of a creek, or a squabble with his sister and brothers to claim the cream at the top of the morning milk-bottle, the reader is instantly and charmingly transported into young Don's world.While the greater part of the book describes a gentle community and a child's life in a loving, close-knit family, Skinner doesn't shy away from tackling more troubling issues, both personal and societal: his father's untimely death when Skinner was only seven; the failure of the local educational system to recognize and address his learning disability; the years of World War II, when an unbearable number of the town's sons and daughters left and never returned; the tacit subculture of racism; the simmering anti-Catholic bias of some of the community's Protestants. This is by no means a view through rose-colored spectacles, but Skinner treats his subject with wisdom, sagacity, and affection. A very enjoyable read.