Inspired by the author's family's stories from Spruce Pine, North Carolina, this touching, coming-of-age tale, set in 1920 in Appalachia, is filled with the love of family and the joy of a young boy's self-discovery. Illustrations.

Twelve-year-old Littlejim, a bookish boy living in a rural North Carolina community in the early years of the twentieth century, hopes to win a newspaper essay contest and thus gain the respect of his stern father.

While hoping to convince his stern father that he will soon be a man, almost-eleven-year-old Littlejim uses his hard-earned savings for his sister's Christmas gift.

While hoping to convince his stern father that he will soon be a man, almost-eleven-year-old Littlejim uses his hard-earned savings for his sister's Christmas gift.

War is uncomfortable for Christians, and worldwide war is unfamiliar for today’s generations. Jim Downing reflects on his illustrious military career, including his experience during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, to show how we can be people of faith during troubled times. The natural human impulse is to run from attack. Jim Downing—along with countless other soldiers and sailors at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941—ran toward it, fighting to rescue his fellow navy men, to protect loved ones and civilians on the island, and to find the redemptive path forward from a devastating war. We are protected from war these days, but there was a time when war was very present in our lives, and in The Other Side of Infamy we learn from a veteran of Pearl Harbor and World War II what it means to follow Jesus into and through every danger, toil, and snare.