Copyright Date:
2011
Edition Date:
2011
Release Date:
09/01/11
Pages:
184 pages
ISBN:
0-89672-727-0
ISBN 13:
978-0-89672-727-4
Dewey:
Fic
LCCN:
2011020886
Dimensions:
21 cm.
Language:
English
Reviews:
ALA Booklist
In this new edition of an award-winning, out-of-print title, originally published in 1981, 12-year-old Jocey has worked as a washerwoman with her Grandma in Kansas City, Missouri, in the late nineteenth century since Momma died and Papa took off for Mexico. Tormented by school bullies for her cleft lip, Jocey longs for isolation, and she persuades Grandma to moveto the small family farm across the border in Kansas. After the arduous horse-and-cart trek, Jocey plows; plants corn, potatoes, lettuce, and more; builds a rough dam; and tries to avoid the neighbors, both hostile and friendly, until she learns that she can have surgery for her deformity. More than the happy ending, what will hold readers is the realism. The relationship with Grandma is totally unsentimental ving and also difficult, especially when Grandma pretends to be weaker than she is so that she can avoid the backbreaking work. The intensity of daily work forms the drama here as much as the universal story of living with disability.
Reviewing Agencies: - Find Other Reviewed Titles
ALA Booklist
Originally a Junior Literary Guild selection, Bank Street College choice for Best Books for Children, and winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Juvenile Book In 1888 Kansas City, Missouri, twelve-year-old Jocey Royal, who has a cleft lip, no longer goes to school. Jocey believes that she will never have a friend, that others will always chase and make fun of her, as they did at school before she quit. Since her mother died and her father became a drifter, Jocey has lived with her grandmother, a washerwoman. When she's not helping Gram with laundry, she fills her lonely life with books and dreams. Mostly she dreams of Kansas and the farm her father abandoned there. On the farm, she could live in isolation--free from torment. Eventually she persuades Gram to go with her to Kansas. Life on the farm is not, however, what Jocey expected. Hard work was no surprise. But there are neighbors and traveling salesmen who cannot be avoided. Then there's Gram, who seems determined to be sickly. Jocey wonders if she made a terrible mistake, until she discovers that any girl can have friends, if she will open herself to others. And maybe even her cleft lip can be helped.
Common Core
STEAM
Graphic
Novel
High/Low
Chapter
Book
Large
Print
Series Tracker
Manga
Big
Book
Board
Book
Hot
Title
Adult
Language
Mature
Content
Ebook
Ebook
MUA (Multi User Access)
Light Novel
