Author:  Mary McDonough
ISBN:  978-0-7582-6366-7

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For anyone (like me) who was a great fan of The Walton’s (That, and Little House kept me going throughout my grade school years), this is not only a book that will bring you back to that time, it is also a fascinating and amazing memoir of a little girl who became a part of a huge, fast-paced world.
 
Mary McDonough played Erin on that set – after starring in the movie The Homecoming - which came out on television and was the start of one of the most dramatic and much loved series in the history of television.  This is a girl who went from being a normal child with an average family to a girl who was suddenly thrust into the limelight.  She went from a classroom and friends to interviews and covers of magazines overnight; from reading and learning her history lessons, she had to begin memorizing lines for episodes.  Readers will note from the author’s in-depth emotions that although this was amazingly fun it was also an extremely difficult way to grow up.  As one can only imagine puberty is hard enough without having it play out in front of the whole wide world.
 
Some of the absolute favorite parts of this book deal with the memories that Ms. McDonough is kind enough to share with her readers.  The Walton’s cast gave her many a day of happiness and love, especially her two “moms” – offering wonderful recollections of Patricia Neal and Michael Learned; as well as memories of Richard Thomas and Will Greer – a ready-made family that she was placed into.
 
What Erin also shares are the horribly difficult times where she seemed to fight her good-girl, Walton’s Mountain image.  She fell into the adolescent pain and suffering that comes with fame, and battled everything from depression to drugs.  She fought constantly against her image and even tried her best to reinvent herself as an actress after the series ended.
 
Mary is now a huge number of amazing and different characters in life.  She is, all at once, a writer, director, actor, producer, and an outspoken activist for women’s health issues.  Readers will truly love “meeting” the real Erin Walton – the little girl who was a favorite in the worlds’ eyes and became a strong, courageous, fantastically talented woman in her own right.  A dazzling novel filled with passion, choices, success, failure, and the reality of traveling down various paths, through the tunnels, and coming out on the other side.  It will make you look at that beloved Mountain in a whole new light.
 
Click Here To Purchase Lessons From the Mountain