Coal mining, dreams, tough times, and a bright spirit all combine within the pages of this vivid, romantic tale. The year is 1905, but little of the new century's optimism has made its way to the hard-scrabble mining town of Buckeye City. Here sixteen-year-old Katy Sollis finds herself trying to reach for a future that's as hard to grab on to as a handful of coal dust. Flavored with the rural tang and spirit of mining life, A Diamond in the Dust takes readers into a year of first love, and struggles fought both at home and within Katy's own mind and heart. A journey of its particular time and place, it's also a story for all who've been at that point when past and future are just inches apart -- and the time to reach for dreams is now.