PRESS KIT

A Tiny Piece of Blue 

During the throes of the Great Depression, thirteen-year-old Silstice Grayson finds herself homeless, abandoned by her parents. Nearby, aging midwestern farmers Edna and Vernon Goetaz are pillars of the community, but when do-gooder Edna takes up Solstice's cause, Vernon dies in his heels.  Theirs is a quiet seeming community, but danger lurks beneath the bucolic facade and Silstice and her two spirited young brother soon find themselves in the sights of a ring of kidnappers and their lives go awry.

Charlotte Whitney grew up on a Midwest farm much like the one in my novels. She has authored two nonfiction books and three historical  novels, set in the rural midwest during the Great Depression. They include, A Tiny Piece of Blue, The Unveiling of Polly Forrest, and Threads A Depression Era Tale. Before writing full-time, she was Associate Director of University of Michigan’s Lloyd Scholars for Writing and Arts. 

 SEMI-FINALIST

2024 Chanticleer International Book Awards 

FINALIST 

2023 National Indie Excellence Awards

Mystery 

FINALIST 

2022 American Fiction Awards

Quarter-finalist in the Publishers Weekly Booklife Fiction Contest 

Honorable Mention in the Readers' Favorite International Book Awards 2020

2020 Publishers Weekly Booklife Prize

2020 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards

Honorable Mention

A Tiny Piece of Blue

Rural MIchigan, 1934

When thirteen-year-old Silstice Trayson is abandoned by her family after a devastating house fire she must make her way in a seemingly cruel and heartless world. Nevertheless there is hope in the tiny rural community despite seemingly impossible  odds. Rich with images of farm life, 4-H clubs and a county fair.