Set in the California desert, this is a stor y about three generations of black women: Emily, the 14-year old narrator; Ola, her eccentric grandmother, who is dying of cancer; and Diane, Emily''s mother. '

 

There are 112 pages in this book. This book was published 1996 by Hachette Children's Group .

Angela Johnson was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, but raised in Windham, Ohio; the only girl in a family of five. She now lives in Northeastern Ohio in a hundred year old house full of plants. When not writing she travels. On one of her trips to the California desert the inspiration for her first novel, Toning the Sweep came about.