THE BREAD SISTER OF SINKING CREEK

Alone at 14, in 1776, Maggie avoids hiring herself out in Philadelphia and seeks her aunt Franny in central Pennsylvania. But Franny has moved to the Ohio Valley; refusing to return to the city, Maggie resolves to support herself by baking bread. Finding a place with the McGrews, she becomes involved with their problems and endures the hardships of frontier life. Finally, realizing how much she treasures her independence, she runs away to seek Franny and a new life in the wilderness. Journalist Moore spins a wild yam here without much thought to accuracy--social, historic, or scientific. He imposes modern feminist ideals, lets Maggie impossibly escape death in an avalanche, clear land with a stick immediately after sustaining third degree burns, and lie overnight in a mountain stream in April without suffering hypothermia. The simplistic portrayal of the ease with which a child communicates through a self-constructed sign language is an injustice to the hearing-impaired. Pass on this one.