I wonder as I wander, out under the sky . . .
Annie Morgan wonders about a lot of things. She wonders how Mama could have died in the spring, when so much life was bursting from the ground and tree branches. She wonders which cloud is Mama's cloud in heaven. She wonders how she and her father, a wandering preacher, will pay for gas and food when Papa gives away about every penny they have to other poor folks. Then in Murphy, North Carolina, when the sheriff tries to move Papa along from preaching on the courthouse square, Annie finds a way to express all her wonderings in a haunting new song.
In I Wonder as I Wander, Gwenyth Swain continues the wondering in this fictional account of how Annie Morgan may have come to sing her song for balladeer and composer John Jacob Niles. Ronald Himler's soft watercolor and pencil illustrations capture Appalachia during the Great Depression and give life to the young girl whose song still enchants us today.