Showing Someday by Jackie French Koller

Celie Wheeler had known all her life that "someday" her town of Enfield, MA, along with Greenwich, Prescott, Dana, and parts of several other towns in the Swift River Valley would be flooded to create a great reservoir to slake the thirst of the growing city of Boston. She just never thought "someday" would actually come. Now construction of the Quabbin is well under way, eviction notices are being served, and Celie must watch as her town is slowly dismantled and her friends and neighbors are scattered to the winds. Set during the Great Depression, SOMEDAY is told through the eyes of three generations of Wheeler women; fourteen-year-old Celie, her restless, widowed mother, and her stubborn, yankee grandmother.

Reviews:

From VOYA:
"Koller excels at making Celie fully human and three dimensional. The town of Enfield becomes a character like any other in the story, triggering emotion and tears."

From Publishers Weekly
Fourteen-year-old Celie Wheeler has much to think about: her plans to be a writer; her changing relationship with her best friend, a boy; and the imminent loss of her home, which has been in her family since the 1700s. Set in the Depression, this coming-of-age story unfolds against the backdrop of the actual last days of the four towns in Massachusetts's Swift River Valley, which in 1939 was flooded to create a reservoir for Boston. Amid the demolitions and the deliberately set fires that punctuate her days, Celie juggles her own despair with her concern for her aged grandmother and widowed mother, even as she experiences the thrill of her first romantic feelings for the young man sent by the Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission to finish emptying the town. With complex, finely drawn characters and fluid language that rings true for the period and place, the story is satisfying emotionally as well as intellectually. Koller's (the Dragonlings series) afterword explores environmental and social issues raised by the episode. Adolescent readers, experiencing their own transitions toward adulthood, will respond to the literal submersion of the heroine's past and to her eventual embrace of the future. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. This heartbreaking account of a town flooded to create a reservoir, based on real events in 1930s' Massachusetts, is told through the voice of 14-year-old Celie Wheeler. Celie has lived in Enfield her whole life, and although she's known for years that "someday" would come when they would have to move, it's a shock when the official notice arrives. Gran staunchly refuses to leave, and Celie and Mama disagree about where to go. At the same time, Celie is torn between affection for her best friend Chubby and her infatuation with a handsome representative from the water commission. Celie's fear of the unknown, frustration with Gran, confusion about her feelings for Chubby, love for her town and family, and surprise upon learning that her mother has ambitions beyond Enfield all ring true. The sad scenes of the town's dismantling are truly harrowing, and Celie and Chubby's final parting is bittersweet, as Celie realizes that "someday" can refer to a beginning as well as an ending. Diane Foote Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.