Random House - 2004
Summary: Not only is Turner Buckminster the son of the new minister in a small Maine town, he is shunned for playing baseball differently than the local boys. Then he befriends smart and lively Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from Malaga Island, a poor community founded by former slaves. Lizzie shows Turner a new world along the Maine coast from digging clams to rowing a boat next to a whale. When the powerful town elders, including Turner’s father, decide to drive the people off the island to set up a tourist business, Turner stands alone against them. He and Lizzie try to save her community, but they are stopped when community members ship the people from Malaga Island to an insane asylum, where Lizzie passes away. Turner's father is also killed by the sheriff for opposing the will of the community. The lesson in the story is realized when Turner finally learns to see things as they are.
"The world turns and the world spins, the tide runs in and the tide runs out, and there is nothing in the world more beautiful and more wonderful in all its evolved forms that two souls who look at each other straight on. And there is nothing more woeful and soul-saddening than when they are parted...everything in the world rejoices in the touch, and everything in the world laments in the losing."
My Impressions: This is a very interesting book. At times it is funny, and at times it is deeply tragic. I think I enjoyed it a lot, but was definitely made more aware of how real the issue of slavery once was, and how closed minded people really were.Parent's Guide: The book contains several weighty discussions of racism, and also allows several of its main characters to die. It is at times very sad, but thought provoking.
Recommendations: A definite read, although I admit the story is tragic.
No comments:
Post a Comment