KATE SHELLEY: Bound for Legend

The gripping, true story of a 15-year-old Iowan who ventured out into a wild storm to give warning of a wrecked railroad bridge. A vivid, exciting narrative is matched to an equally compelling sequence of oils--Ginsburg's peaceful, sunlit landscapes darken threateningly as the storm arrives, and, whether leaning into the wind or crawling over a trestle only a few feet above churning floodwaters, Kate's sturdy figure is the very image of an ordinary person rising to face extraordinary circumstances. Her act saved lives, very nearly at the cost of her own, and, as San Souci (Donkey Ears, 1994, etc.) explains in an afterword, earned her a special place in the hearts and lore of railroad workers. A fine alternative to Margaret Wetterer's stiffer, simpler (but no less dramatic) Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express (1990).