This book is about Hannalee who has arrived back home in Georgia, only to find that with the mill gone there is no work to be had, so she and her family head to what is left of Atlanta, she needed to rebuild the devastated city. It was an okay book, but I got bored throughout it. ( )

Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee is an intermediate-level children's novel about the end of the Civil War as told from the perspective of a lower-class white girl. Hannalee has arrived back home in Georgia, only to find that with the mill gone there is no work to be had, so she and her family head to what is left of Atlanta. Life is hard in the refugee camp, but the family makes the most of it and Hannalee gets a job working in a dry goods store. Life has changed significantly since the time before the war, and Hannalee finds herself making friends with both a Yankee and a former slave girl—people she never would have been seen with before her time in Atlanta. Just when things are beginning to look up, her brother is accused of murder, and it is up to Hannalee and her friends to clear his name.

An interesting take on historical fiction from an uncommon perspective. This is the second of two books in the series, but everything is summarized at the beginning, so you don't need to have read the first book to enjoy this one. ( )