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Dahlia in Bloom

Susan Koehler

2020 FAPA President's Book Awards Winner - Children's Grade 4-6 (Gold) Can a person just decide to give up feeling scared? It’s 1933, and Dahlia Harrell lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains in a hand-me-down cabin built by her Grandpap’s Uncle Zeke. At eight-and-three-quarters, Dahlia knows all about being scared. She’s scared of snakes, high-up places, dark nights, and a mean ol’ sister named Celia. What she doesn’t understand is the new president’s nonsense: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Dahlia decides that enough money can buy away any reason she has for feeling afraid, and she sets her hope on the rumor of a treasure buried beneath Zeke's cabin. However, when her family is uprooted to become tenant farmers in a distant community, Dahlia’s quest for fearlessness ultimately sets her on a path of recklessness. What she fails to realize is that the secret to living a fearless life has been hers all along. And that treasure? Well, it just might hold the answer after all.
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