Ann E. Burg

"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we will have for destruction." -Rachel Carson

A novel in verse from the point of view of Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring. Beautifully illustrated by Sophie Blackall. Back matter includes an author's note, artist's note, and list of books by Rachel Carson. Readers may not know she published three successful books before Silent Spring (1962): Under the Sea Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951), and The Edge of the Sea (1955).

See also: Hidden Powers: Lise Meitner's Call to Science by Jeannine Atkins

Quotes

Maybe so many years
spent outside the circle
have made inside the circle
feel strange and unsettling. (62)

It's wonderful to know
just what you want to do and do it.
Just what you want to be and be it! (75)

It is not enough
to embrace knowledge
if we are not also willing
to use that knowledge
to benefit the world. (78)

everything in nature tells a story
or asks a question. (88)

Everything in nature is connected. (189)

How ironic that so many doors
should open
when I've barely the strength
to walk through them. (277)… (meer)

I remember being a young kid learning about slavery and thinking something along the lines of, "Why would anyone accept being a slave?" At the time I didn't understand a lot of things. I didn't understand the drive to stay alive, even if it means living under unbearable conditions. I didn't understand what it means to be born into a culture that denies your humanity. If I had had the opportunity to read this book back then, I think it would've helped me understand the psychological shackles of slavery, not just the literal ones.

Grace is nine years old and has always lived with her mother in slave quarters on a tobacco plantation. But now Grace is being forced to live and work in the Big House serving the white Master and Missus. It's just on the other side of the hill from her family, but it means Grace won't see her mother. And it means Grace will be scrutinized by the hateful Missus. Through poetry, the reader feels Grace's fear, her intense love for her mother, and also her desire to speak her mind even though it's forbidden. When Grace discovers the Master and Missus intend to sell her mother and brothers at a slave auction, she finds the courage to try to save her family.

This story is based on new research about the Great Dismal Swamp, a seemingly uninhabitable area in Virginia and North Carolina that was a refuge for people escaping slavery. You can read more about it here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deep-swamps-archaeologists-fugitive-slaves...

… (meer)

It only took me an hour to read this, but it was intense. Between all the death, dismemberment, guilt, racism, violence and fear, there's baseball, piano playing, family dinners and lullabies. But that's what you get from books about the Vietnam War. Ann Burg's story doesn't shy away from gruesome details, but she also shows that life goes on.

I wasn't blown away by the writing (like I was by, say, [b:Out of the Dust|25346|Out Of The Dust|Karen Hesse|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184485196s/25346.jpg|808243]). But it didn't make me roll my eyes (like, say, [b:Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba|6151004|Tropical Secrets Holocaust Refugees in Cuba|Margarita Engle|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255700915s/6151004.jpg|6330166]). I think the story was so moving because it rang true. It is difficult for most of us to imagine life as a Vietnamese boy adopted by a suburban American family in 1977. A boy who witnessed terrible things before being airlifted to a totally different world, a world where people blame him for the deaths of their loved ones. He tells his story as if he's just barely able to get through it. It's harrowing.

What age is this best for? That's a little tough. Matt, the narrator and main character, is 12 or so. There's no mature language, but there are enough disturbing scenes from war-torn Vietnam to make me think twice about giving this to a 10 or 11 year old. And the fact that the writing can be a little difficult to sort out makes me think it'd be best for 8th grade and up. It definitely requires a reader who is relatively skilled and mature.

Mock Newbery 2010
… (meer)