Cynthia Rylant is a child of Appalachia, raised in the small town of Beaver, West Virginia. She came to this town at age eight to live with her mother, after living for four years at her grandparents' home in a nearby town. Her grandparents' house had been filled with loving aunts and uncles and cousins who had also come to stay, none of whom had much money, but they had time and love. Much of her work reflects her memories of this life which moved at a slow pace, and Rylant often provides the reader with a reminiscent look at the close relationships of families who have few material things, but really care about one another. Rylant says that she "soaked it all up, every last bit of it," and later began to "ease these memories out, little by little, and [I] led them...