Sis Goose is a beloved member of Luli's family, despite the fact that she was born a slave. But the family is harboring a terrible secret. And when Union soldiers arrive on their Texas plantation to announce that slaves have been declared free for nearly two years, Sis Goose is horrified to learn...
I finally wrote up a review of this book! It's an old favorite! I wrote it up for my blog, Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing (and, it looks/reads better there, because all the HTML is viewable! :) )Time Enough for Drums is the one of three reasons I decided in 8th grade that it was okay to rea...
A Break with Charityby: Ann Rinaldi 1. The setting of this book is Salem Village in 1692. The book demonstrates the Witch Trials and all the events that took place during this time. 2. This book follows a young girl, Susanna English through her experience with the Witch Trials. Before the trial...
On the night of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination, his frantic wife, Mary, calls for her best friend and confidante, Elizabeth Keckley, but the woman is mistakenly kept from her side by guards who were unaware of Mary Todd Lincoln's close friendship with the black seamstress. How did thes...
alyssa pagan December 29 2011Brooklyn Rose The main character is Rose. She lives some where in the south and marry’s a fifty year old man. Rose is 14. She has mom a dad a sister and a little brother. Her sister has married just a few days before her. Her sister is now expecting a baby as for ...
An Acquaintance with Darkness is about both the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and also medical history surrounding the Civil War. Emily Pigbush, the daughter of one of Elizabeth Keckley's seamstresses, has been orphaned and is supposed to live with her best friend, Annie Surratt. However, when...
Just the other day, this little book on Tudor England in the juvenile fiction department of the library called out to me. It’s not a genre I particularly read, but since I was on the heels of having completed Bring Up the Bodies, what was I to do?!It’s a sad, often times, heart-wrenching story ab...
The reader is drawn into the story right off by being plunged into the conflict by the very first line. The story proceeds with a chain of causes and effects. Each event sets off another. Because of the complex nature of the characters, there is ever an element of surprise. Lizzy’s nemesis Elinor...
I have come to expect so much more from Ann Rinaldi. She was the first author to introduce me to the world of historical fiction. When I first started to read vigorously my aunt gifted me with the Ann Rinaldi book 'an aquantice with darkness" and after that I moved through the rest of her series ...
Keep Smiling Through is a lovely book. Just like Ann Rinaldi’s other novels there is a strong female character who speaks about life truths in a very straightforward almost painfully honest way.I really like the theme in this one. You can do the right thing but things can still turn out badly. An...
Sarah Tracy has spent her entire life under constant supervision, always under the thumb of one older sibling or another. Now, at eighteen, it's time she was married, so she is being sent to dinner parties, plays, teas, soirees, talks, and chaperoned walks -- always accompanied, always watched.Sa...
The Coffin QuiltBy: Sam JenningsThis book is called The Coffin Quilt. It is a historical fiction about the Hatfields and McCoys of Kentucky and West Virginia. This feud started with a pig that was stolen by the Hatfields. This book is about a girl named Fanny McCoy who tries to survive the feud. ...
Torn from her native land in Africa when only a small child, Keziah arrives in Boston terrified. She doesn't understand what the white people say. On the voyage, she was treated inhumanely and watched her mother die. Bought by Mr. Wheatley for his wife, Keziah becomes Phillis Wheatley. She is a s...
Growing up, Elizabeth fears she can never be Queen. Although she is the King's daughter, no woman can ever hope to rule over men in England, especially when her mother has been executed for treason. For all her royal blood, Elizabeth's life is fraught with danger and uncertainty. Sometimes she i...
It was, for me, a final leave-taking. All partings after this would be footnotes in my life. When Nelson lifted my trunks into the carriage, I felt the ropes binding me to home tearing. There was a finality about it that would render any other partings as trivial. These feelings hung heavy on me,...
The fire was near out. The room was chilled. On the floor at her feet there was flour and some broken eggs. "Mama? Mama, I have supper for you." For a moment there was no recognition in her eyes. The front of her chemise and petticoat were stained. Her mobcap was off, and there was flour in her h...
They'd eaten rats together in a Yankee prison. And when Pa got the letter that the man was run down by a carriage on the streets of Richmond, he cried like a baby. That was the onliest time I saw him cry until Tolbert told him Ro wouldn't come home. Pa didn't really cry, but his face got all scre...
On her bed was laid out her best summer dress. "Where are you going?" I asked. "Nowhere." She blew her nose. "I've got to marry Jon." I stood rooted in my place. My head whirled, worse than when I'd been on the cotton mill roof. "Jon?" I repeated the name like the village idiot. "Jon? Why?" "Beca...
Mama was cheerful and able to be around and about as usual. Anthony Wayne was there, visiting, lifting her spirits. The house was in order, and Pa, having inspected the gardens, immediately pronounced them "delightful." That very afternoon, while Pa and General Wayne were out tramping about, Geor...
Two slaves ran off from the Gerard plantation down the road, the one where Mr. Gerard had died and his wife, Charlotte, was now living with his doctor in a cottage on the grounds. The place from whence Emilie came. "It must be chaos there," Richard said at supper the evening I gave Nat the map. "...
Martha stayed beside her, soothing her with words. Sue Mundy had gone into the Yankees' room to beg forgiveness for Jenny and ask that the contraption be taken off, at least for the night. "I'll sign all the memo pads or pieces of paper you want," she promised. For they all wanted her signature. ...
Young Elizabeth, the second daughter of King Henry VIII of England, is only nine years old. She is living at Hatfield, one of her father's estates, which is modern, commodious, lovely with gardens and a deer park, and only twenty miles from London. Her nanny, Catherine "Cat" Ashley, and her "hous...
The look of surprise on my face was real. How did he know? Had Mama told him? "I hope you're not getting overfriendly with him," he cautioned. "What is that supposed to mean?" "I think you know." "Well, damn." "Don't use foul language with me." And there he was, in an instant, up on his high hors...
I drew in a deep breath, seeing it, but that was all. Then, as we got to the side door, there were all kinds of people about. Civilian men were dragging away fallen pieces of the roof to make way for the military carrying in litters of wounded soldiers. And women, most of whom we knew, were carry...