Annie Morgan wonders about a lot of things. She wonders how Mama could have died in the spring when so much life is bursting from the ground and tree branches. She wonders which cloud is Mama’s cloud in heaven. And she wonders how she and her father, a wandering preacher, will pay for gas and food when Papa gives away about every penny they have to other poor folks. Then in Murphy, North Carolina, when the sheriff tries to stop Papa from preaching on the courthouse square, Annie finds a way to express all her wonderings in a haunting new song—what’s known today as the Appalachian Christmas carol, "I Wonder As I Wander." I Wonder As I Wander is Gwenyth Swain’s fictional account of how Annie Morgan may have come to sing her song for balladeer and composer John Jacob Niles. Ronald Himler’s soft watercolor and pencil illustrations capture Appalachia during the Great Depression and give life to the young girl whose song enchants us still. Words and music to the song are included in this picture book for all ages. From the Author Of all the folksongs collected and recorded by folklorist and balladeer John Jacob Niles, none is as haunting and beautiful as the Appalachian tune "I Wonder As I Wander." The story behind this Christmas song is sketchy. In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Niles happened upon an open-air revival of sorts, on the courthouse square in Murphy, North Carolina. Niles had collected many songs from people who lived in the surrounding hills and hollows, but he was still surprised to hear a pure young voice sing alone, with no accompaniment, these words: I wonder as I wander out under the sky,

How Jesus, our Saviour, did come for to die

For poor orn’ry people like you and like I

I wonder as I wander out under the sky. Or all of God’s angels in Heaven to sing—

He surely could have had it, ‘cause he was the King. The singer’s name was Annie Morgan, and she earned twenty-five cents each time she repeated the short song for Niles. As usual, he scribbled the words and music in his own shorthand into a notebook until he could sing the song back to the young girl with no mistakes. At the time, Niles didn’t think to ask Annie Morgan where she’d heard the tune or where she was going. And later, when he wanted to learn more, she had left without a trace. I Wonder As I Wander is a work of fiction that continues the wondering; it tells the story of Annie Morgan and how her song might have come to be.