author: Patricia Giff
This is another in Ms. Giff's oevre of books for middle school aged girls. The lead is always a girl, always strong.
This book is set in Ireland at the beginning of the potato famine in the mid 1800s.
The author's great grandparents came to American because of the famine and the topic was close to her heart.
The family life of those who scraped by to pay the rent to the British landlords (unfeeling wretches as THEY were) is described with feeling and detail.
People did everything to avoid starvation - eating limpets and even grass from the field. Her dream is to come to Brooklyn, the way her older sister did.
The book is well written and describes a moment in time that many people know little about.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 4