The first book in the Eastern Kentucky Girl series, The Soup Bean War relates the escapades and antics of five-year-old Emily Conn during the summer of 1957. Emily is the next to youngest child in a family of five girls growing up in Floyd County, Kentucky. In this volume she finds herself caught up in a string of mysteries, mishaps, and misadventures. She endures an outbreak of the measles, a flood, a house fire, and a run-in with the law and a mysterious old man. With her Michigan cousin Brad by her side, Emily experiences the most exciting and adventurous summer of her young life. Based on the life of Tina Rae Collins, The Soup Bean War offers thrilling adventures, unique and colorful characters, secrets to uncover, skillful dialogue, and a genuine look at Appalachian life in the middle of the twentieth century. Young readers especially will benefit from the morals and life lessons Emily learns as she seeks to discover the world around her.