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Summary
Summary
"The first-person narrative portrays Lorraine's family and community with realistically drawn personalities and relationships as well as fine-tuned ethical dilemmas, while sketching in the backdrop of the wider catastrophe. A moving personal story." -- Booklist (starred review)
"Napoli skillfully evokes Lorraine's close-knit community, interweaving elements of Irish culture, history, and land- and seascape in ways that make the story accessible and appealing...a timely reminder about conditions in our current world." -- The Horn Book
Through the eyes of twelve-year-old Lorraine this haunting novel from the award-winning author of Hidden and Hush gives insight and understanding into a little known part of history--the Irish potato famine.
It is the autumn of 1846 in Ireland. Lorraine and her brother are waiting for the time to pick the potato crop on their family farm leased from an English landowner. But this year is different--the spuds are mushy and ruined. What will Lorraine and her family do?
Then Lorraine meets Miss Susannah, the daughter of the wealthy English landowner who owns Lorraine's family's farm, and the girls form an unlikely friendship that they must keep a secret from everyone. Two different cultures come together in a deserted Irish meadow. And Lorraine has one question: how can she help her family survive?
A little known part of history, the Irish potato famine altered history forever and caused a great immigration in the later part of the 1800s. Lorraine's story is a heartbreaking and ultimately redemptive story of one girl's strength and resolve to save herself and her family against all odds.
Author Notes
Donna Jo Napoli was born on February 28, 1948. She received a B.A. in mathematics, an M.A. in Italian literature, and a Ph.D. in general and romance linguistics from Harvard University. She has taught on the university level since 1970, is widely published in scholarly journals, and has received numerous grants and fellowships in the area of linguistics.
In the area of linguistics, she has authored five books, co-authored six books, edited one book, and co-edited five books. She is also a published poet and co-editor of four volumes of poetry. Her first middle grade novel, Soccer Shock, was published in 1991. Her other novels include the Zel, Beast, The Wager, Lights on the Nile, Skin, Storm, Hidden, and Dark Shimmer. She is also the author of several picture books including Flamingo Dream, The Wishing Club: A Story About Fractions, Corkscrew Counts: A Story About Multiplication, The Crossing, A Single Pearl, and Hands and Hearts. She has received several awards including the New Jersey Reading Association's M. Jerry Weiss Book Award for The Prince of the Pond and the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-A sad, weighty tale about young people experiencing hunger firsthand and the sorrow that accompanies loss. Lorraine, 12, is the child of a tenant farmer in County Galway, Ireland, in 1846, at the height of the Potato Famine. The family and their neighbors face extreme poverty and struggle to survive the season. Lorraine befriends Susanna, the daughter of the wealthy landowner, who secretly helps Lorraine and her friends by giving them food. The rocky yet poignant friendship between Lorraine and Susanna keeps readers engaged and fosters a sense of hope. The faith of the adults and children is tested, and parents must decide what to do to save their families: stay in Ireland or move to another part of the world where conditions are better. The Irish people of the time are portrayed as stoic, strong, and proud, but also as victims of the wealthy, ruling British class. The ending may leave some readers wondering about the characters' choices and perhaps disagree with them, which could foster lively discussions. This book fills a unique niche among historical fiction titles due to the subject matter and setting. The extensive back matter supports the authenticity of the story and provides opportunities for further study. VERDICT Give this book to fans of Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's The War That Saved My Life. A good addition to libraries where historical fiction is popular.-Selene Athas, Glenelg Country School, Ellicott City, MD © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
In late 1846 during Ireland's Potato Famine, twelve-year-old Lorraine meets Susanna, daughter of Lorraine's tenant-farming family's English landlord. Together they devise a plan to help the farmers and cottagers survive. Napoli skillfully evokes Lorraine's close-knit community, interweaving Irish culture, history, and scenery for an accessible and appealing story. Lorraine's affection for her family and solidarity with her starving friends deepen the personal tragedy. Timeline. Bib., glos. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A family struggles to survive the Irish Potato Famine in 1846.Following the onset of the blight that caused massive crop failure the previous summer, 12-year-old Lorraine hopes that her family's efforts on their small tenant farm in County Galway will put enough food on the table to get through winter. Their freshly planted spuds rot practically overnight, though, and Lorraine, her little brother, Paddy, and their Ma and Da join neighbors in a fight to stay alive. Napoli shows her considerable talent for drawing readers into her protagonist's world through Lorraine's frank, first-person account of her circumstances. The narrative, like Lorraine, is grounded in the natural world. While foraging meager greens for the family's supper, Lorraine encounters a girl on the grounds of the English landlord's manor. Miss Susanna is the pampered landlord's daughter who tells Lorraine that "you Irish are irresponsible, having children you can't take care of" and that they are to blame for their own starvation, even as she shares some of her doll's picnic. Miss Susanna serves as stand-in for the English attitude toward the Irish. Her imperious attitudegiving orders to Lorraine and ignoring the obvious poverty of the tenant farmersis set against Lorraine's story, giving young readers a lens through which to understand the history of oppression. The author makes it clear in endnotes that it's worth noting the similarities to the plight of modern-day refugees. Although the publisher aims this book at teens, Lorraine's age suggests a middle-grade audience, and there's nothing about the content or the sophistication of storytelling that skews the age up.A worthy introduction to an important slice of history. (map, glossary, bibliography, timeline) (Historical fiction. 9-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* It's one thing to read that many Irish people died of starvation during the 1840s potato famine. It's another thing entirely to watch it happen through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl. Lorraine awakens one morning to hear her father shouting in the field. Overnight, the potato plants' leaves have blackened. The family rushes to salvage the few wholly or partly edible spuds their inadequate winter's food supply. Renting their land from an English landlord who ignores their plight, they are barely surviving, while throughout the country, families turned off their farms die of starvation, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. In this vivid narrative, Lorraine befriends the landlord's lonely, capricious daughter, who sometimes gives her food, but doesn't believe or even understand that starvation and death stalk Lorraine, her little brother, their parents, and their neighbors. The first-person narrative portrays Lorraine's family and community with realistically drawn personalities and relationships as well as fine-tuned ethical dilemmas, while sketching in the backdrop of the wider catastrophe. The back matter includes a glossary of Irish terms, a source bibliography, and a discussion of Irish history through 1851. A somber but uplifting historical novel that views a national tragedy through the lens of a moving personal story.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2018 Booklist