I liked this book - it held my attention and is the sort of story I like. One thing I noticed, there are several references to Jubie's father beating her, but this is never really explained or dealt with in any particular way. It's just hinted at, and left at that. I checked confusing too, because of one character's name in the beginning, where the author jumps from using Stell to Stell Ann, with no explanation. At first I thought they were two different people - one named after the other. Eventually, as I kept going, I figured out it was still just the one person - Jubie's older sister, who was referred to as Stell or Stell Ann. Lastly, the book is titled "THE DRY GRASS OF AUGUST" but I didn't see why. Usually there is a key sentence or something to rationalize where the title came from. I don't think I ran across any reason in the book for the title. I think it would have been meant more, if the maid, Mary, for instance, said, "The dry grass of August reveals the struggle of the season..." or something like that, something to explain why it was called this. Maybe I missed it. This may seem picky, but these things stood out to me.