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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s 1949, and 13-year-old Francine Green lives in “the land of ‘Sit down, Francine’ and ‘Be quiet, Francine’ ” at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles. When she meets Sophie Bowman and her father, she’s encouraged to think about issues in the news: the atomic bomb, peace, communism and blacklisting. This is not a story about the McCarthy era so much as one about how one girl—who has been trained to be quiet and obedient by her school, family, church and culture—learns to speak up for herself. Cushman offers a fine sense of the times with such cultural references as President Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, Montgomery Clift, Lucky Strike, “duck and cover” and the Iron Curtain. The dialogue is sharp, carrying a good part of this story of friends and foes, guilt and courage—a story that ought to send readers off to find out more about McCarthy, his witch-hunt and the First Amendment. Though not a happily-ever-after tale, it dramatizes how one person can stand up to unfairness, be it in front of Senate hearings or in the classroom. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-50455-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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