I am Lavina Cumming

This is a touching and heartwarming tale of a young country girl sent to live in a city, far away from home. By Susan Lowell, the story begins on a small ranch on prairie, with a little girl watching her father prepare to send her to California. Lavina is ten years old and loves her family, but her father wants her to grow up to be a lady. Her mother dead and with no sisters, he decides to send her to live with his sister in the hopes that she will grow up educated and respectable. After arriving, she discovers that her cousin, her "playmate", is a spoiled brat and her aunt is prim and proper. The only thing she likes about California is her school, where she excels and makes many good friends. But when her town is ripped apart by the San Francisco earthquake, will she and her family finally be able to come together? Or will more than buildings be torn apart?