Watt Key is an author I can always count of when I need to recommend a book that I’m sure will be a hit! Cottonlandia is another Watt Key hit!

Thank you to NetGalley and be publisher for an eARC.

The plot here is rather what you would expect - privileged kid from the city is exiled to a rural area and learns to appreciate nature and hard work. Key also has a solid perspective on guilt and blame in this book - no one is blameless or innocent. They all make bad choices and are held accountable for them. The ending is a bit idealized and there are some elements that are never properly addressed.

Cottonlandia is not the book I thought it would be. I think I decided to pick it because it's set in Mississippi at the turn of the millennium and we don't have enough Mississippi stories.
Win and I would have been around the same age at the time. Internet, cell phones, etc. those things were a lot slower showing up in the rural South. I remember the big catfish farm boom. And shooting stuff and blowing stuff up is still a past time. I may love a good bonfire but I don't care for rifles and guns. Cottonlandia gets a lot right in terms of Mississippi life. It's very nostalgic, at least for me. As for Win, it's fascinating to see someone do what I did but backwards. I spent a lot of time trying to get out of my little rural Mississippi town. And eventually I got to see and live in big cities like Los Angeles and Boston. Win is a spoiled entitled brat from a rich and powerful family in New York City. He gets sent to live with his Grandmother in Mississippi on a cotton farm while his dad/family deal with some not so great stuff that we don't find out for a little while.
Win was not exactly a likable character. He does grow as a person a little. He learns the value of friendship and community. As far as my personal enjoyment goes, Cottonlandia is just an ok read. Please be aware of talk and partipation of hunting animals. I wasn't expecting it and do not enjoy reading about. BUT, it is a big part of Mississippi culture so I kind of understand why it was included. I just think it's unnessary. I hope trigger warnings are included in the final version. The writing is simple, smooth, and to the point. I enjoyed the shorter chapters.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Cottonlandia.

Over winter break, fifteen year old Winchester or Win as he is known, was sent to visit family that he did not have a relationship with. Win was deposited into Mississippi, a big change from Manhatten, New York. What started out as four day trip lasted longer. Initially, Win was excited about the trip as he had become interested in hunting.
The novel was an enjoyable journey that was taken through the eyes of a teenage boy. I enjoyed peeling back the layers and exposing what turned out to be the family that Win deserved. I enjoyed the warmth that was offered to Win and he learned that "stuff" he valued were worthless. I liked that Watt Key did not fill the novel with teenage angst, instead Win found value in friends,
Key's characters were beautifully fleshed out, and created warmth from the Mississippi folks, through the comparison of Win's parents. I never got the feeling that Win's parents missed him, he was just a means to what they desired. Win's grandmother and the house seem like one and the same, in order to one, you needed to know other. And the phone, who knew an ancient corded phone could become a character.
There are several instances where animals were killed that could be difficult for young readers, but the events belong in the story. I am from a rural area and hunting was an important activity and people would spend a lot of time preparing and talking about hunting.
I became lost in this book, I enjoyed that the story did not follow some sort of formula. I would be honored to read more by this author, and of course this is a five star novel. Thank you to NetGalley, Watt Key, and the publisher for the privilege of reading this wonderful novel, in exchange I've written this honest review.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book. I am so sorry to say that this one just didn't work for me. I put it down and came back to it multiple times, and I just couldn't make myself finish it. I was hoping that this would be a book I could give some of my extremely reluctant, rural, male readers, but I'm not sure they'll have the patience needed to get past the first few chapters.

A New York City rich kid ends up penniless on a cotton farm in Mississippi. That description at NetGalley, combined with the cover illustration, attracted me to Cottonlandia by Watt Key. It's a city mouse/country mouse, fish-out-of-water story, but one that's not played for laughs in the Green Acres mold. Also, there's no dealing with a traditional high school situation and friends here. No bullies, no teacher problems, no sports, no sibling rivalries. Not your same old, same old YA.

Fifteen-year-old Win Canterbury is not your same old, same old YA male, either. He is self-centered, self-involved, selfish, entitled, and immature and demanding. He most definitely is not the likable character required for readers to identify with. I loved him. He might not be someone I'd like to know personally, but I loved him in this book, because he was different. His unpleasantness, however, doesn't alter the fact that he has also been abandoned, though not your traditional abandonment on the side of the street. The reason for the abandonment is unique as well.

Just before Christmas sometime in the 1990s, Win's wealthy father informs him that he's sending him down to visit his sickly grandmother in Mississippi for a few days. Win doesn't know the woman. He's only been to Mississippi once. His father is insistent. So Win is handed off to a flight attendant in New York, takes three planes to get to his destination, where he is met at the airport by John Case, the farmer who has been renting the Canterbury family's property, Cottonlandia, for decades. The farm is a going concern as a cotton plantation/farm, but the family house is sort of rotting around its owner, who is sort of rotting away herself. Not exactly a southern mansion, though it and the grandmother have clearly seen better days. Win is dropped into this world where he can't even get food he's used to, and after a few days he learns that he has to stay there. He has nowhere else to go.

The 1990s setting makes Cottonlandia believable. The Internet was not then what it is now and teenagers were not connected with phones and social media, so Win's isolation makes sense. An old lady with no TV and only one phone she doesn't want to use would be eccentric at that time but still possible.

In a more formulaic YA book, Win and his creepy grandmother would develop a deep, meaningful relationship. Not here, thank goodness. Or living at Cottonlandia would awaken some kind of instinctual love for the family property. Again, no. Instead, Win's boredom and dependence on John Case, as his contact with his old world, eventually leads to his involvement with the people he now finds himself stuck with. He eventually rejects those who should have cared for him and didn't and embraces those who provided him with care when he needed it.

If I knew more about southern regional writing, I might suggest that Cottonlandia is southern lit for YA. Place and world view are hugely important in the story, and the place is in the south. There's a lot of description, which is something I usually skim. I didn't here. Seriously, I actually read about cotton farming and blowing up beaver dams. (Aside: I am not fond of beavers.) I felt I was being exposed to something new for me, read everything, and looked forward to getting back to the book between reading sessions. Some people might argue that the climax of the story wasn't climactic enough, but there's a reality to that. Plus, if you had any involvement with construction at the end of the last century, the issue Win uses to get what he wants is entirely believable. It used to be a very big deal and may still be, though maybe not so much here in New England.

The author, who has published successfully with traditional publishers, says in a note that he published Cottonlandia himself. It can be hard for self-published books to attract attention. I hope that this one gets some.

I loved everything about this book! Spoiled rich kid from NYC sent to live with his grandmother on a rundown cotton plantation in Mississippi when his parents lives implode. He is a fish out water till he figures out how to get along.

For spending money he does actual manual labor on the farm and gets to know the workers there who make very little money but are content and happy with their lives, more so than the elite group he was used to. The manager of the farm is a stoic, no nonsense type who becomes his mentor and father figure.

He makes an unlikely friend in Buster and finally learns the meaning of true friendship.

So many good moral lessons here!

This book was heartwarming and beautiful. The characters were very relatable and true. It made me smile and cry. The best book I’ve read in a while.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penfish Press for allowing me to read this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I wanted to read this because he is a popular author with my students in my 6-12 grade library. I think this is a book that they will really like and can relate to.

Cottonlandia tells the story of Win Canterbury, an indulged, entitled teen from New York City who is forced to figure out who he wants to be when his whole world collapses. When his prestigious, and expensive, private school goes on winter break, Win's parents tell him he will be traveling to Mississippi to spend four days with his aging grandmother on the family's generations-old cotton farm. He agrees, only because he has no choice and he knows he will back before Christmas. When he arrives at the plantation, he finds a decrepit grandmother who seems to be waiting for death and an old plantation house that is a crumbling relic of the past. His only company is Mr. Case, the farmer who leases the land to raise cotton, and Gert, the housekeeper who takes care of his grandmother, so he stays in his room, waiting out his sentence. When the fours days are up, his father arrives with news. His father is being indicted on tax evasion charges, his mother has had an emotional breakdown, and Cottonlandia is Win's new, and permanent, home. On top of all of that, he must convince his grandmother to change her will to leave her estate to Win so that the property cannot be seized in his father's trial.

Lost and angry, Win runs headlong into Farmer Case's unbending will. If Win wants money, he'll work for it, laboring on the plantation after school. Clothes? He'll buy them with his leftover allowance money. Company? He'll have to make friends at school. As the weeks pass, Win throws himself into work, learning to love the land, his land. His grandmother changes her will, but instead of being happy, Win is miserable. He is torn between his growing love for Cottonlandia, and his knowledge that the farm will be sold as soon as his grandmother dies. And when she dies, the neighboring landowner moves quickly to begin churning up the land, cashing in on an option to buy that Win's father had negotiated long before Win got involved.

As Win learns more about his father, his land, and himself, he has to decide who he really is, outside of the expensive clothes, fancy schools, and NYC apartments. When he figures out what he wants, it may be too late to get it.

Cottonlandia is a quiet, gentle story that wraps around you and draws you in. Win's dilemmas are genuine and heavy, and readers are pulling for him to make the right choices, even when they understand why he doesn't. Watt Key treats the South and southern culture gently and respectfully while showing clearly how it compares to Win's New York life. I found myself wondering about the story when I wasn't reading, a sure sign of the story's ability to grip me and keep me involved.

While Win is a believable character, his dialogue often seems like an adult's version of what a kid would say. His language and style of speech ring forced or stilted at times, but Win's personality is clear and consistent. Early in the book, there are passages where the author tells us what we should know about Win or other characters rather than allowing us to see the characterization through the speech and actions. This technique gives readers the information we want, but I feel a little cheated, wishing I could get that knowledge for myself through the character's speech and choices. One final comment surrounds Key's use of Indian artifacts in the story. Some will be offended that a character dug up artifacts and displaced them in the story. I see it differently. The Indian artifacts were displaced but for a purpose that I believe the Native settlers would have applauded. Through the removal of the artifacts, the land is protected and preserved, a fact that supports the Native American belief that the land is for the use of all, not for the enrichment of a single person. In a very real way, the artifacts kept the land whole and celebrate the role the Native people played on the land.

Overall, Cottonlandia is a book I would happily recommend. It is the type of book I love best -- a story of a teen facing difficulties who must dig inside himself for the answers. And while the hurt and confusion and loss are real, the character comes out better and stronger, finding himself in the course of his battle.

This is a sweet. Fish out of water story. About a boy that visits his grandma in the south (of America) fairly predictable plot but still enjoyable. Great short chapters.