Foreigners are coming to 16-year-old Viney Walker’s home in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee. Arriving from England in 1880 to establish Rugby, a Christian Social Community where young men hope to buy land and be treated equally, these flatlanders are grading new roads, trampling her wildflowers and luring her pretty sister Lizzie into town. But as much as Viney loves her mountain way of life, especially her weaving, she is drawn to Charlie Breckenridge, a handsome English man with gentian blue eyes. The jacket copy likens this historical romance to Jane Austen, and it is funny, poignant and always centered on whether or not Viney and Charlie will get together. Viney and her mountain ridge are beautifully realized, the prose full of well-researched details of flora and fauna, though a bit heavy handed with similes. The first-person point of view is just right for getting into the mind of this homespun girl with dirt under her fingernails and grit in her spirit. Readers will come to love feisty Viney and cheer her on. (Historical fiction. 10 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2129-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
PROFILES
An outstanding new edition of this popular modern classic (Newbery Award, 1961), with an introduction by Zena Sutherland and...
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-395-53680-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
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