Gr 8 Up-Historical fiction can be a hard sell, but this gem of a novel-in-verse is indeed worth selling. It is set against the backdrop of a Gilded Age playground for society's upper crust, the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club of Pennsylvania's Lake Conemaugh. The cross-class romance between Celestia, daughter of a wealthy businessman and his obedient society wife, and Peter, summer help and son of a miner from the valley below, is absorbing. It is, however, not the entirety of this rich tale of a real-life natural disaster, the Johnstown Flood of 1889. The flood lies in wait throughout the narrative as allusions are made to the weakness of the dam miles above the working-class shantytowns below. After an unfortunate family situation separates Celestia and Peter the summer of their meeting, she returns to the lake for the summer of 1889 ready to disavow her family and find her beloved. Readers will cheer for this young couple to beat the odds together, and they'll tear through the pages as the tension and drama of the approaching flood rise, oblivious to the exhaustive research and attention to historical detail beneath. This book's ability to wear so many hatsheart-tugging romance, nail-biting suspense novel, and social commentary (it is ripe for discussion about wealth and class in America or society's response to natural disaster) more than earns it a place on the shelves of all libraries serving teens. Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CT

When privileged sixteen-year-old Celestia, vacationing at a summer resort, falls in love with local boy Peter, she knows they will face challenges. Little does she imagine this includes fighting for their lives during the Johnstown Flood. Told in verse through multiple voices, the story effectively examines wealth and poverty, will and love, prideful humankind and the unstoppable forces of nature.

Told in free verse with multiple voices, this novel dramatically recreates the impact of the historic tragedy of the Johnstown, Pa., flood on the lives of six people from 1888 to 1889. At the heart of the story is Celestia's love for Peter, an illicit romance between a young girl of high society and the resort's hired boy, which her father forbids. To save the family's reputation, her father arranges to send her to Switzerland with her aunt, but when it's discovered that Celestia's pretty, engaged sister is pregnant, Estrella is sent instead. When the dam literally bursts, the tsunami is both physical and emotional, uprooting all their lives, including those of Maura, the wife of a railroad conductor, and Kate, a trained nurse scarred by the drowning of her beloved. As the three rivers converge, so do the lives of the characters in their efforts to survive. With an atmosphere like that of Jennifer Donnelly's A Northern Light (2003) and skilled wordsmithing akin to Jen Bryant's, the staccato pulsing of this love story builds the tension and puts human faces on a devastating disaster. (author's note, timeline, further reading) (Historical fiction. YA)

This debut novel in verse uses the 1889 Johnstown flood to explore class divisions and social mores in a moving portrait of four fictional families. Celestia's nouveau riche family would like her to "marry well" and advance the family's reputation with a pedigreed husband, but she has fallen in love with Peter, a hired hand at the resort hotel. In Johnstown proper lives Maura, a young woman with four small children and a loving husband. On a train to Johnston on the day of the flood is Kate, a widowed nurse who lost her beloved husband and stifles her own emotions by caring for others. The stories intersect in small but beautifully crafted ways. As in Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust (1997), Richards uses spare, clear language to both advance the story and create memorable characters. "Even before the kiss / my heart is beating so hard / that it scarcely leaves room for air." Richards provides a time line and bibliography for readers intrigued by the flood. Those who loved the movie Titanic will be drawn to this intensely romantic and polished story.

While the subtitle of this book is A Novel of the Johnstown Flood, this verse novel is, at its heart, the story of star-crossed lovers. Celestia and Peter meet and fall in love at a resort for Pittsburgh's elite, where Celestia is vacationing and Peter is working. The pair is soon separated by family drama and class constraints. Just when Celestia has decided to choose love over family and privilege, a dam—owned by the resort—breaks, flooding the valley below and tearing the pair apart yet again. Throughout the story, Celestia's father and two women from the valley relate their experiences; their stories are woven into the main Celestia/Peter narrative. The verse format allows for multiple perspectives and works well for expressing the intense and raw emotions of both falling in love and surviving a devastating disaster. This book is ripe with possibilities for class discussion. Besides the historical occurrence of the flood, social and economic class divisions are addressed. Comparisons can also be drawn to the causes and consequences of more recent man-made and environmental disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Use the book to support curriculum, or give it to teens in search of a quick, engrossing romance. This is a strong choice for any collection serving young adults.—Bethany Martin.

Threads of romance and class run through this striking novel in verse, set against the 1889 Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania. Debut author Richards alternates among several teenagers and adults whose lives intersect before, during, and after the disaster. In the most prominent story line, 16-year-old Celestia (“if I am not the fun-loving beauty,/ then I must be the serious one”) and her family enjoy peaceful summers at the Lake Conemaugh resort until her spirited older sister becomes pregnant and Celestia falls in love with a hired hand, enraging their parents. Maura's narrative focuses on her home life—she has three children by age 17 (“How can a house full of babies feel empty?”)—and her determination as the flood hits. And Kate's story follows her arduous journey to become a nurse after the death of her first love, as well as her role in the rescue when typhoid breaks out. Richards builds strong characters with few words and artfully interweaves the lives of these independent thinkers. Celestia's taboo relationship feels dramatic and sweeping, while the various minute-by-minute accounts during the flood are painful and immediate. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Apr.)