Comfort (Bakers Mountain Stories) Paperback – October 3, 2011

I recently read the book 'BLUE' with my granddaughter and enjoyed it immensely!!! I have been helping her with her homework during this cover 19 shutdown and could not wait until she brought the book back each morning. She finished it and answered her teachers questions after each chapter. I was raised in Hickory, N.C., the place the book is written about and after reading it, we took the grandchildren to see the hospital. We took pictures and shared them with her teacher, who in turn, shared them with the rest of the students in her 4th grade class on their Chrome books. I was surprised to find out that I was raised just 2 miles from the hospital and now reside just 20 miles south of Hickory. I wasn't born until 1947 and do not remember even hearing about the hospital until a number of years ago. I ordered this book 'COMFORT' and when it arrived last week I finished it in no time and I will be ordering the next two very soon. This book, just like BLUE, draws you into the story and you can't wait to see what happens next. Having been raised in the same area and knowing the same places that Ann Fay knew, made these books so familiar and I felt like, in a way, I knew her. We also visited Warm Springs and the Little White House in Georgia a couple of years ago. Our daughter lives within an hour of both places so she took us for a tour. So well worth seeing them both!!! The museum is truly great and the Little White House does look like the White House in Washington. You will see several of his wheelchairs, the whole house and the bed he died in. The pool at the Springs is empty now but you can still see the stairs and where they laid the patients to exercise their legs. These two books are so informative and will educate you quickly on how things were during the War and the Polio epidemic. I learned so much about how bad it truly was and how easy it was to catch polio. I do remember though how we lined up in the 50's getting our polio 'drops' on a cube of sugar so we would not get polio. Ms. Hostetter has truly captured the south and especially the area around Hickory. Thank you so much for these stories, you have made the war and the polio epidemic come close to home where we all need to remember our past.

My son's class read Blue and I read it after. He also met the author via Zoom and was ale to discuss the book. Very interesting and we both learned a lot about polio and the treatments. I continued to read the entire series and highly recommend it.

Such a good book! Great 2nd part to the series. Storyline is great, and the author does a nice job of pulling the facts from this time period into the fiction portion of this book.

Thank you Joyce Hostetter for letting us experience the continuing life story of Ann Fay, who although a fictional character, lives a real life in the pages of your books. Ann Faye has grown & developed without bitterness or self pity. She is a strong and complete person in her own right. and owes much to you for allowing her to emerge. I hope we will get to hear more from her & her family in the future.Ann Faye's life and surroundings in the forties and fifties took me back again to the place she lived & the people she knew. I as well as Ann Fay had polio in 1944 and experienced many of the same emotions & trials she did. If you are a younger person, I can assure you this is the way it was back in those days,and I was comforted to visit that era once again.This may be a book for younger people, but I highly recommend it for all those who lived through those times. Read the book & pass it down along with 'BLUE' to your grandchildren and those who follow.

I read this to my fourth grade class every year. The boys and girls both love the story and always want me to read the sequel, Comfort. Great historical fiction!

Gift for my grandchild

This book is a sequel to BLUE. Readers who enjoy historical fiction will love both books. COMFORT is set in rural North Carolina following World War II. Our heroine, Ann Fay, is recovering from the effects of polio, and her daddy is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. This book draws a haunting portrait of the emotional effects fighting has on soldiers and their families.The author conducted extensive historical research in writing this book and it shows, particularly when Ann Fay is treated at Roosevelt's Warm Springs Foundation. All of the secondary characters are exquisitely drawn. I have a special fondness for Ann Fay's neighbor, Junior Bledsoe.

When Daddy returns from fighting Hitler, Ann Fay assumes like will get back to normal. Or as normal as can be expected for a girl with polio. But just as the disease has changed her, so has the war changed her Daddy. And Ann Fay doesn’t know what to do. Should she take care of herself and travel to Warm Springs, Georgia for therapy or stay with her family in the hopes she might help her Daddy heal.“Answers come easy to people who never have problems.”Ann Fay doesn’t have any easy answers, but COMFORT raises profound questions about healing, both mentally and physically, and how important it is to be understood.