SARAH’S GROUND

“Face your problems head-on, girls. Stare them in the eye,” Sarah Tracy’s headmistress would say, and Sarah learned her lesson well. Now, in 1861, with the Civil War raging all around her, Sarah has been hired to oversee Mount Vernon, a national treasure in disrepair and the only neutral ground in America during the war. In addition to running the household, weeding the garden, scraping wallpaper, and demanding that the slaves be freed or paid as servants, Sarah meets with General Winfield Scott, General McClellan, and President Lincoln himself. She receives such visitors as a French prince, artist Winslow Homer, photographer Matthew Brady, and she witnesses the landing of Thaddeus Lowe’s hot-air balloon. Based on a true story, the narrative is Sarah’s experience as related in her journal, and her voice rings true. Though Rinaldi cuts the story short, summarizing the rest of the war in an unsatisfying epilogue, Sarah’s voice will win over young history buffs. (author’s note, bibliography) (Fiction. 12+)