by Jackie French Koller ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001
Fourteen-year-old Celie always knew that “someday” the Swift River Valley, where she, her mother, and grandmother live would be flooded to create a reservoir for Boston, but she never dreamed that day would come just months before her graduation from eighth grade in the spring of 1938. The reality of the flooding of the town of Enfield was life changing for the three Wheeler women. Gran’s family had lived in the big 18-room house since the 1700s; she had buried her husband, her son (Celie’s dad), and a baby daughter on the land. Refusing to sell her property to the District Water Commission, Gran is the last holdout in the valley, denying that they must leave. The arrival of handsome Mr. Parker, driving his cool, yellow MG, who has come to convince Gran to sell, precipitates the bittersweet resolution. Celie’s crush on him disrupts her life-long friendship with Chubby; Mama hopes to start a new life in Chicago; and an auction of their household goods ends with Gran dying brokenhearted. A perceptive picture of small-town life that defines the meaning of “watershed” as the people must cope with wrenching change when their small Massachusetts town disappears. This “factitious” novel is one of an emerging trend of telling a story about a factual time or event with fictitious people. An author’s note and bibliographical sources provide grounding and the purposeful plot carries a strong message through the characters. Readers will understand how emotional ties to a place can define who you are. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-439-29317-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
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by Michael Morpurgo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2004
From England’s Children’s Laureate, a searing WWI-era tale of a close extended family repeatedly struck by adversity and injustice. On vigil in the trenches, 17-year-old Thomas Peaceful looks back at a childhood marked by guilt over his father’s death, anger at the shabby treatment his strong-minded mother receives from the local squire and others—and deep devotion to her, to his brain-damaged brother Big Joe, and especially to his other older brother Charlie, whom he has followed into the army by lying about his age. Weaving telling incidents together, Morpurgo surrounds the Peacefuls with mean-spirited people at home, and devastating wartime experiences on the front, ultimately setting readers up for a final travesty following Charlie’s refusal of an order to abandon his badly wounded brother. Themes and small-town class issues here may find some resonance on this side of the pond, but the particular cultural and historical context will distance the story from American readers—particularly as the pace is deliberate, and the author’s hints about where it’s all heading are too rare and subtle to create much suspense. (Fiction. 11-13, adult)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-63648-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2004
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by Laurence Yep ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 1993
Explanatory note; reading list.
Yep illuminates the Chinese immigrant experience here and abroad in a follow-up to The Serpent's Children (1984) and Mountain Light (1985).
After accidentally killing one of the hated Manchu soldiers, Otter (14) flees Kwangtung for the "Golden Mountain"; he finds his adoptive father Squeaky and Uncle Foxfire in the Sierra Nevada, where thousands of "Guests" are laboriously carving a path for the railroad. Brutal cold, dangerous work, and a harsh overseer take their toll as Squeaky is blinded in a tunnel accident, Foxfire is lost in a storm, and other workers are frozen or half-starved. By the end, toughened in body and spirit, Otter resolves never to forget them or their sacrifices. Foxfire and Otter consider themselves only temporary residents here, preparing for the more important work of modernizing their own country while ridding it of Manchu, Europeans, and, especially, the scourge of opium. America is a dreamlike place; English dialogue is printed in italics as a tongue foreign to most of the characters; and though Otter befriends the overseer's troubled son, such social contact is discouraged on both sides. In a story enlivened with humor and heroism, Yep pays tribute to the immigrants who played such a vital role in our country's history.
Explanatory note; reading list. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-022971-3
Page Count: 276
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1993
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