The Book Worm's Library

When I first picked this book up, I was a little hesitant.  The last book I read of Ms. Rinaldi, I didn’t find all that exceptional.  So, going in I was already unsure if I was in the frame of mind to enjoy this read.  However, this book proved to me, once again, that you need to have an open mind with every book you read.

The story is of a young girl that lives Hagerstown, Maryland, and opens in August of 1861, just prior to the battle of Antietam.  This town proved to be the crossroads for Lee’s Northern push into the U. S. from the South — and would ultimately become one of the more active locations during the Civil War.  Amelia is a young girl, struggling to come of age amidst the battles that are raging all around her home.  Confronted with the decision of how to support the war effort, on which side to give over her loyalties, and living in a town undecided as to where it truly belongs in this war, Amelia is frustrated, and often confused by the patriotic struggles of both sides in the one, tiny town she calls home.  With a mother that supports the war effort by providing nursing assistance to the hospitals set up for soldiers from both sides of the field, and trading food and other necessities to the Confederate solders, who constantly come looking for assistance in their desperate conditions, and a father that is actively pro Union, and sits on the town counsel — Amelia finds herself trapped in a world that is ripping itself apart at the seams.  Everyone she knows, and loves has very stalwart feelings for one side of the war or the other.  And with the battles literally raging in the streets of her own town, she finds she is torn between not wanting to take sides — and wanting to continue to support everyone she knows and loves.

If there is one thing that I didn’t like about the book, it is that the characters seem so young for the rolls they appear to be filling in this book.  This was the same complaint that I had with the other book I read of Ms. Rinaldi.  Many of the situations that Amelia, and her younger brother seem to find themselves actively participating in, are situations that I find it hard to believe a twelve year old would be doing.  (Even during a time of war.)  And I come away from the book feeling like Ms. Rinaldi is saying that it was very common place for very young children to be actively involved in not just the war effort — but in war activities themselves.  Many of the actions and situations that Amelia finds herself involved in I would expect to find a young girl of sixteen or seventeen struggling with.  But I have a hard time getting past the age of the characters of Ms. Rinaldi’s books.

That said — this book provides an excellent historical fiction account of the ransom of the town of Hagerstown.  And even if I had difficulties accepting the fictional characters activities in the book — the support structure of the historical portion of the narrative provides an excellent frame work for everything else that is going on.  This is an amazing story, which I am surprised to find I never learned anything about when I was in school.  This is a great story to read if for nothing more than that.  What an amazing tribute to the people of Hagerstown, and the price they paid to save their town from being burned around them.  And I even found the fictionalized portion of the unexplained portions of the history to be quite entertaining.  This is really a fascinating story that I think both adults and children would be interested to read.

Ms. Rinaldi does well with the historical construction of historical fiction novels.  I find that it is the bridge work of the integration of the fictional characters into the factual portions of the story that are weak in some places.  But, over all, she is an excellent author — and this work is really quite an interesting read.  This would be one book that I think would be a good starting point in getting young adults interested in history.  It provides an excellent story, about a fascinating time period in history, with a very good reading experience.

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Tags: American History, Book, Civil Rights, Civil War, fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult Fiction

This entry was posted by Lisa on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 6:04 am and is filed under American History, Children's Literature, Civil Rights, Civil War, Historical Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.