Swindletop

Based on the discovery of oil at Spindletop near Beaumont, this middle-reader story is rich in details of turn-of-the-century American, Texan, and Jewish life, race relations, and modern longings of young women for careers of adventure beyond marriage. Lois Ruby, a prolific children's author who makes her home in Wichita, Kansas, has six juvenile novels published by New York publishing houses. Her two most recent are Skin Deep and Miriam's well by Scholastic, and This Old Man by Houghton Miffin