Before Dorothy

 Hazel Gaynor is the author of Before Dorothy. This fiction novel, set in the 1920's and 30's is the story of Auntie Em. Em and her husband moved to Kansas. Her sister stayed in Chicago, got married and had a child named Dorothy. When the sister and her husband drowned in a boating accident, Em traveled by train to Chicago to pick up Dorothy. Dorothy was 7 years old. She had nightmares about a black wind. Sometimes Dorothy walked in her sleep. Once in Kansas Dorothy came to love the prairie and the farm animals. Life for Dorothy really settled down once Em bought her a puppy. The puppy's bed was in a tomato box. The dog's body covered the middle two letters of tomato so the dog was named Toto. Honestly this is the best book I have read for some time. Even when I had important things to do I could hardly put it down.