Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
I loved this historical middle grade novel, The Year We Sailed the Sun (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015) by Theresa Nelson. It’s set in the year 1912 and took me into a unfamiliar world of Catholic orphanages and Irish street gangs in St. Louis.
Eleven-year-old Julia Delaney and her almost fourteen-year-old sister are being sent to The House of Mercy. Their older brother Bill, only fifteen himself, promises it will just be for a short time. Mary’s the good sister, so living with nuns won’t be hard on her. But Julia, that’s quite a different story. And you can tell so from the first sentence of Chapter One: “I suppose I will go to hell for biting the nun.”
That made me laugh. Yet I found Julia a sympathetic character as well. The author was a Winner of the PEN/Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Working Writer Fellowship for this book. It’s also a Junior Library Guild Selection.
The novel is a fascinating blend of fiction mixed with actual history. (Of course, I had to read the Author’s Note at the end to know that.) On the book’s page on Theresa Nelson’s website there are great pictures of the time period, including one of the real Julia who inspired the story.
The author has a number of other books to put on my “to be read” list.
Tag: historical mg
May B.
MG Adventure in Verse
May B. (Schwartz and Wade, 2012) by Caroline Starr Rose is written in sparse verse which is perfect for showing the lack of choice that May has when her parents tell her she has to live with another family, and the solitariness of the prairie and a soddy fifteen miles away from anyone. May’s parents tell her it will just be till Christmas. But, of course, it means an end to her schooling. May’s life takes a turn for the worse when she’s left all alone in the soddy and no way to communicate with anyone.
Growing up, Caroline Starr Rose fell in love with the Little House books. When she became a teacher, Caroline wondered what life must have been like for children who found school challenging. She set the story in Western Kansas and gave her main character what we now know of as dyslexia. Read more at her website, not only about this book and all it’s recognition, but about Caroline and her other books.
Inside Out and Back Again
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
The Newbery honor book Inside Out and Back Again (HarperCollins, 2011) by Thanhha Lai is written in verse snapshots. Here’s a brief summary of the story:
It’s 1975, 10-year-old Hà, her mother and 3 older brothers must leave Saigon, Vietnam. Schools were closed a month early, the president has resigned, the communists are coming. They pack up and head for the Navy ships to escape. They end up on the island of Guam and then in Alabama.
Thanhha brings Hà and her family to life. I love the line: “It’s hard to be grateful when you feel stupid because you don’t know the language.”
I also enjoyed the inside story on how the author wrote this award winning story. Read the article here. Read more about her and her books here.
One Crazy Summer
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
One Strong Girl!
One Crazy Summer (Amistad, 2010) by Rita Williams-Garcia is set in 1968 and would be eye-opening for younger readers to learn how blacks, then called Negroes, were treated. Even for me living at that time in a community where I didn’t see much prejudice, it’s rather shocking.
12-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters are flying from Brooklyn to California to spend time with their mother Cecile who left them 7 years ago right after Fern was born. Cecile doesn’t want them–takes the money Pa sent and spends it on takeout food. Girls had been hoping for a trip to Disneyland. Mom sends the kids to a Black Panther summer camp to get rid of them!
I loved Delphine and her determination!
I also loved reading about Rita herself on her website. (NoMo? You’ll only know what it is if you visit…) She’s written four award winning books! Find out about them and what else she’s written under the My Books tab.