| Booktalk
#1
During the summer of 1941,
two brave and caring children meet and share a great adventure. Mariel,
a polio victim, lives in Brooklyn with her adopted mom, Loretta.
Loretta nursed Mariel in the Windy Hill Hospital when she was four and
adopted her when her family never returned to claim her. Mariel has
learned to live with the prejudice and fear people show toward her as a
cripple. Some people even think she might infect them, and therefore
it requires courage every time she leaves the safety of her home.
Brick is sent to live with
Mariel and Loretta after fire destroys his family's Windy Hill orchard
and farm. After a rough start, Mariel and Brick learn to trust each
other and embark on a journey to their shared home, Windy Hill. Their
stories mingle in such a wonderful way and the conclusion to their adventure
of discovery is very satisfying. To find out how these delightful
characters resolve their conflicts, you really have to read this book!
Prepared by: Marcia
Russo for South
Carolina Children's Book Award
Booktalk #2
The time is 1941. Eleven-year-old
Mariel, orphaned when she developed polio, is now living in Brooklyn (close
to the Dodgers) with the nurse, Loretta, who adopted her at the hospital
in Windy Hill, NY. She still has vague memories of her trip to the hospital,
and of her mother. She loves Loretta but really want to discover her roots.
Brick's family have been farmers in Windy Hill and is sent to Loretta by
his parents after a tragic fire burns their orchard. Neither of these children
want to be in Brooklyn. Read this book and find out if they learn of their
pasts, how they deal with their mutual present, and what their aims are
for their own personal futures. (Jean B. Bellavance for Pennsylvania
Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2003-2004)
Booktalk #3
It's 1941 and Brick's family
is settled on their "forever farm" raising apples and other crops in Windy
Hill, New York. Then a devastating fire kills their young trees,
and Brick's parents are going to have to leave the farm and go to a city
where they can find other work. Worse, they're sending him to live
with a friend of his mother's in Brooklyn until things get better. Brick
is heartbroken to leave the farm and to be separated from his parents,
and he worries constantly about how the old couple on the next farm will
harvest their apples without the help of his family. Brooklyn turns
out to be okay. He gets to see the Brooklyn Dodgers play baseball.
Loretta is nice, and her adopted daughter Mariel becomes a friend.
Mariel also has ties to Windy Hill; she recovered from polio in a hospital
there, and it's where Loretta found her and became her mother. But
Mariel still has questions about that time. Who was her real mother?
What happened that she left Mariel in the hospital there and didn't come
back? Together, Brick and Mariel hatch a plan to return to Windy
Hill, hoping to answer Mariel's questions and help Claude and Julia with
the apple harvest at the same time. Will they be able to go…All the
Way Home? (Mary Lou Wallace, Marylwal@bellsouth.net,
East
Aiken Elementary School) |
