Presented to: Ann Edwards Cannon
For: Charlotte's Rose
Young adulthood is a trying time; no longer children, but not yet adults, boys and girls of this age yearn for both states at once. Young adult fiction in its purest form gives shape to that yearning and makes sense of that confusion. In Charlotte's Rose Ann Cannon has taken the framework of the familiar pioneer journey and rewoven it into a unique tale of love, commitment, heartbreak, and understanding. While Charlotte's physical journey from Wales to the Salt Lake Valley, pushing a handcart and carrying an infant not her own, cannot be replicated by the reader, her spiritual journey from selfish childhood to the brink of mature adulthood is one that every human being must eventually make. Cannon's account of the pioneer experience does not manipulate the reader's emotions by lingering over-long on the worst tragedies that befell the early Saints, though she also does not shrink from depicting them. Instead, she tells a story of daily loves and losses, little jealousies and small kindnesses, the flowering of young love and the unexpected gift of second chances. While this book may be appreciated by readers of many ages, it is the young whom Cannon directly addresses at the end when she writes: "Like Charlotte, you have stories of your own. Funny ones, sad ones, dramatic ones. Treasure them and remember them�.Your stories will matter in the future because you matter now." It is the truest lesson anyone can learn.