It was such a great book. I read it to my daughter and just bawled. A women who was a librarian wrote it based on her own experiences growing up.

It was about a young boy that was occationally asked to deliver a pot of food to a neighbor who was an old native american widow that lived in a little house across a big field. Kids at school made up stories. One of which was that she had a giant black snake living in her house that would eat the mice. There was an old cow that would look through the window and she stood right next to the house all the time. The boy would bring the pot of food, set it at the door and knock and high tail it out of there as soon as the old woman would answer the door (he was scared of the woman and the snake). His father (or grandfather) would occationally carry the woman to town to do her shopping. She would buy snuff (dipping tobbacco) and it was embarrising for the boy to go into town with her and his grandfather (or father). One winter he noticed that the smoke from her house was not coming out of the chimney so he went to see what was wrong. He knocked but there were only sounds from inside and no one answered the door. He went inside and found the old woman in a corner with her hands cuffed around a little sparrow and she was weeping. She held the little bird up to him and he took it and wrapped it up. He helped her up and they went to find his grandfather. They burried the little bird. As time went by he became friends with the old woman and would visit her. On one of his visits he brought a gift, a spitune that he made from a coffee can and some seeds and leaves to decorate it. It was a touching story (illustrated in black and white) but for the life of me I can't remember the title or author. Only that she was a woman and librarian. Anyone know? Thanks!! Kelly