English, Karen. Francie. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 19999. ISBN 0-374-32456-5. $16.00. 199 pp. * 4-7 FI Reviewed by Nancy Alder Twelve-year-old Francie lives in segregated Alabama in the 1940s. Her life is a narrow one of laundry and housecleaning work with Mama. Francie's only relief comes from immersing herself in the few books to which she has access and daydreaming of the family joining her daddy in Chicago, where he works as a railroad porter. This chronicle of Francie's day-to-day life and challenges makes painful reading at times but rings true at every turn. It gives a clear feeling of the time and place, and each of the characters is full-blown and recognizable. The reader aches with the injustices Francie has to bear and cheers for her small victories. I read this book in a single sitting, and I'll welcome the sequel it cries out for. This is the best of the 1999 publications I've read; it feels like a Newbery contender to me.
