Bringing culture to life through children's literature: the Mississippi Delta in the 1930's

After hearing reminisces from her parents about childhood adventures that took place in the 1930's Mississippi Delta, the author, Peggy F. Hopper, decided to document these stores in two children's books, Peggy Sue and the Pepper Patch and The Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt Hollumway Jones and John Hart: Chasing Bandits. Her mission more directly was to give voice to the positive stories of multiracial relationships during a time of racial tensions in the Delta. With a background in reading and English education, the author faced challenges for deciding which aspects of culture representative of the time should be included. Since both books are categorized in the genre of children's nonfiction, care was taken to make each book as historically accurate as possible given that the books are memories from that era.