A bracing work of historical fiction makes an unfriendly place of the Ohio riverfront as three children fight for their lives. In May 1793 the motherless Dunn family—Papa, Amos, Clara, and Jonathan—have almost completed their long trek from eastern Pennsylvania to the place where they hope to make a new life, the Ohio frontier. Amos, 13, is particularly anxious to start over; his memory of a terrible event and his subsequent guilt can be assuaged only in a new place. When the riverboat that is to carry the family to Marietta is ambushed by Indians, a terrible battle ensues, and in the confusion, the boat goes adrift, carrying the Dunn children down river. A second Indian attack causes them to abandon the boat and they land on the north shore of the Ohio River. Their only course is to walk to Marietta, following the river. Along the way, Amos spots a boy clinging to a floating log, and rescues him. He is an Indian boy, barely alive from a gunshot wound, and the children start to nurse him back to health. Still ahead for them: They are taken prisoner by a band of Shawnee, and need to reach Marietta, hoping to see their father again. Willis (Out of the Storm, 1995, etc.) has created a rousing adventure; it will have readers turning the pages and rooting for the spunky Dunn kids all the way. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 17, 1997
ISBN: 0-395-77044-0
Page Count: 183
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
An absorbing tale about urban life on the World War II homefront.
It’s 1944, and Dory, 12, and her brothers, Fish, 17, and Pike, 7, are living alone; their father has joined the Navy, and their mother is dead from tuberculosis.
The Byrnes live on New York City’s Lower East Side. Their neighbors assist with food, but when a new landlord finds out their dad is away, he makes trouble for the siblings. Dory, an independent risk taker, learns of a long-disused dumbwaiter inside Mr. Caputo’s restaurant in the Fulton Fish Market, where he regularly treats the kids to seafood stew. She uses the dumbwaiter to explore the otherwise inaccessible floors of an old hotel and brings her brothers there to live so they can avoid being sent to an orphanage. The story is both grounded in reality and embellished with entertaining exploits, keeping readers excited about Dory’s experiences as she holds her family together and they await their papa. Occasionally, the text shifts from third to second person and shares with readers knowledge that is hidden from Dory, such as a mystery about a hidden diamond. The novel develops the setting through the kids’ visits to places like the Empire State Building and Coney Island. Dory is an endearing character who confides her thoughts to Libby, her nickname for the Statue of Liberty. In the author’s note, the secrets behind the real hotel that inspired this story are revealed. Characters read white.
An absorbing tale about urban life on the World War II homefront. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780823451630
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Locked out of the silk factory for being but a moment late, an orphan passes through an unexpectedly open gate to a better life in this engrossing tale of expanding horizons from Howard (A Different Kind of Courage, 1996, etc.). Hungry and despairing, Emma peers past an open door to see a gaily painted boat, the Cygnet, moored on the nearby canal, the shipping lanes of Victorian England. The scent of potato is too strong to resist, but she’s just eaten one raw when she is pressed into service as a “huffler” for crusty old Mrs. Minshull, the boat’s owner, helping haul cargoes of potatoes, coal, salt, and the like between towns, while caring for Rosie, the huge, gentle tow horse, and getting regular meals for the first time since her parents’ deaths. Readers will be drawn in, both by Emma’s sense of wonder at the new world that unfolds before her, and by Howard’s evocative portrait of the canal people’s distinctive way of life. Emma develops into a sturdy, loyal, self-reliant child who proves herself by resolving an internal conflict, then by hatching a scheme to keep the Cygnet independent. Although the uniformly kind-hearted supporting cast and neatly wrapped ending give this a conventional narrative arc, the strong female leads and well-established sense of era will remind readers of Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice (1995). (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-82295-2
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
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