{"product_id":"welcome-to-the-world-baby-girl-isbn-9780449005781","title":"Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!","description":"\u003cb\u003eA funny, serious, and compelling novel  by Fannie Flagg, author of the beloved \u003ci\u003eFried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe \u003c\/i\u003e (and prize-winning co-writer of the classic movie).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“[This] tale of tough, eccentric, endearing women who first endure and then prevail. . . . will make you laugh out loud—and shed a few tears. . . . \u003ci\u003eWelcome to the World, Baby Girl! \u003c\/i\u003eis another rattling success.”—\u003ci\u003eRichmond Times-Dispatch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Once again, Flagg's humor and  respect and affection for her characters shine forth. Many inhabit small-town or  suburban America. But this time, her heroine is urban: a brainy, beautiful, and ambitious  rising star of 1970s television. Dena Nordstrom, pride of the network, is a woman  whose future is full of promise, her present rich with complications, and her past  marked by mystery.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Among the colorful cast of characters are:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sookie, of Selma,  Alabama, Dena's exuberant  college roommate, who is everything that Dena  is not;  she is thrilled by Dena's success and will  do everything short of signing autographs  for  her; Sookie's a mom, a wife, and a Kappa forever\u003cbr\u003e         \u003cbr\u003e Dena's cousins,  the Warrens, and her aunt Elner,  of Elmwood Springs, Missouri, endearing, loyal,   talkative, ditsy, and, in their way, wise\u003cbr\u003e         \u003cbr\u003e Neighbor Dorothy, whose spirit  hovers over them  all through the radio show that she broadcast  from her home in  the 1940s\u003cbr\u003e         \u003cbr\u003e Sidney Capello, pioneer of modern sleaze journalism and privateer  of privacy, and Ira Wallace,  his partner in tabloid television\u003cbr\u003e         \u003cbr\u003e Several  doctors, all of them taken with—and  almost taken in by-Dena\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e There are others,  captivated by a woman who tries to go home again, not knowing where home or love  lie.“Utterly irresistible.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Enjoyable . . . [Flagg] keeps it simple, she keeps it bright, she keeps it moving right along—and, most of all, she keeps it beloved.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Satisfying . . . [Flagg’s] faith in the healing power of small towns and family are refreshing.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eFannie Flagg\u003c\/b\u003e began writing and producing television specials at age nineteen and went on to distinguish herself as an actress and writer in television, films, and the theater. Her first novel, \u003cb\u003eDaisy Fay and the Miracle Man\u003c\/b\u003e, spent ten weeks on The New York Times paperback bestseller list, and her second novel, \u003cb\u003eFried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe \u003c\/b\u003e, spent thirty-six weeks on the same list. It was produced by Universal Pictures as the feature film  \u003cb\u003eFried Green Tomatoes\u003c\/b\u003e. Flagg's script was nominated for both the Academy and Writers Guild of America awards, and won the highly regarded Scripters Award. Flagg narrated both novels on audiotape and received a Grammy Award nomination for best spoken word. Flagg lives in Montecito, California.PREFACE \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Elmwood Springs, Missouri \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 1948 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the late forties Elmwood Springs,   in southern Missouri, seems more or less like a thousand other small towns scattered   across America. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Downtown is only a block long with a Rexall drugstore on one end   and the Elmwood Springs Masonic Hall on the other. If you walk from the Masonic Hall   to the Rexall, you will go by the Blue Ribbon cleaners, a Cat's Paw shoe repair shop   with a pink neon shoe in the window, the Morgan Brothers department store, the bank,   and a little alley with stairs on one side of a building leading up to the second   floor, where the Dixie Cahill School of Tap and Twirl is located. If it is a Saturday   morning you'll hear a lot of heavy tapping and dropping of batons upstairs by the   Tappettes, a troop of blue-spangled Elmwood Springs beauties, or at least their parents   think so. Past the alley is the Trolley Car diner, where you can get the world's   best chili dog and an orange drink for 15 cents. Just beyond the diner is the New   Empress movie theater, and on Saturday afternoons you will see a group of kids lined   up outside waiting to go in and see a Western, some cartoons, and a chapter in the   Buck Rogers weekly serial. Next is the barber shop and then the Rexall on the corner.   Walk down on the other side of the street and you'll come to the First Methodist   Church and then Nordstrom's Swedish bakery and luncheonette, with the gold star still   in the window in honor of their son. Farther on is Miss Alma's Tea Room, Haygood's   photographic studio, the Western Union, and the post office, the telephone company,   and Victor's florist shop. A narrow set of stairs leads up to Dr. Orr's \"painless\"   dentist's office. Warren and Son hardware is next. The son is eighteen-year-old Macky   Warren, who is getting ready to marry his girlfriend, Norma, and is nervous about   it. Then comes the A \u0026amp; P and the VFW Hall on the corner. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Elmwood Springs is mostly   a neighborhood town, and almost everyone is on speaking terms with Bottle Top, the   white cat with a black spot that sleeps in the window of the shoe repair shop. There   is one town drunkard, James Whooten, whose long-suffering wife, Tot Whooten, has   always been referred to as Poor Tot. Even though she has remarried a tea-totaller   and seems fairly happy for a change, most people still call her Poor Tot out of sheer   habit. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e There is plenty of fresh air and everybody does their own yard work. If   you are sick, somebody's son or husband will come over and do it for you. The cemetery   is neat, and on Memorial Day, flags are placed on all the veterans' graves by the   VFW. There are three churches, Lutheran, Methodist, and Unity, and church suppers   and bake sales are well attended. Most everybody in town goes to the high school   graduation and to the yearly Dixie Cahill dance and twirl recital. It is basically   a typical, middle-class town and in most living rooms you will find at least one   or two pairs of bronzed baby shoes and a picture of some child on top of the same   brown and white Indian pony as the kid next door. Nobody is rich but despite that   fact, Elmwood Springs is a town that likes itself. You can see it in the fresh paint   on the houses and in the clean, white curtains in the windows. The streetcar that   goes out to Elmwood Lake has just been given a new coat of maroon and cream paint   and the wooden seats shellacked to such a high polish they are hard not to slide   out of. People are happy. You can see it in the sparkle in the cement in front of   the movie theater, in the way the new stoplight blinks at you. Most people are content.   You can tell by the well-fed cats and dogs that laze around on the sidewalks all   over town and even if you are blind you can hear it in the laughter from the school   yards and in the soft thud of the newspaper that hits the porches every afternoon.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But the best way to tell about a town, any town, is to listen deep in the night   . . . long after midnight . . . after every screen door has been slammed shut for   the last time, every light turned off, every child tucked in. If you listen you will   hear how everyone, even the chickens, who are the most nervous creatures on earth,   sleep safe and sound through the night. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Elmwood Springs, Missouri, is not perfect   by any means but as far as little towns go it is about as near perfect as you can   get without having to get downright sentimental about it or making up a bunch of   lies.Ballantine Reader's Circle","brand":"Ballantine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301828153573,"sku":"NP9780449005781","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780449005781.jpg?v=1767743764","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/welcome-to-the-world-baby-girl-isbn-9780449005781","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}