"For months I had wished and wished the baby would be a girl, a little sister."The abstract is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.
Abstract: At her grandparents' North Carolina mountain home during the summer of 1963, eleven-year-old Annie Winters, grief-stricken by the death of her newborn sister and isolated by her mother's deepening depression, finds comfort in holding an oblong stone "rock baby" and in the friendship of a neighbor boy and a reclusive mountain woman with a devastating secret.
Publisher: Random House; 213 pages
Publisher: Random House; 213 pages
Posts
5 comments:
I was unexpectedly impressed with this novel. I wondered if we really needed another book on dead siblings, but this one is my favorite of the genre. The characterization was strong, the sense of time (1963) was strong, and the author kept a tight enough rein on the strong emotions so that it never veered into melodrama or sentimentality.
I loved the spunk main-character Annie showed, the surprises, and the mysterious old woman. For a time, I was right there in the North Carolina mountains, my hands thrust into the gritty rocks in the icy creek. This author has a gentle touch.
This book took me to a time and place from long ago. Well written, fast paced, just enough suspense to keep me wanting to read more. I could have been the girl in the story.,
The story of a child facing the cruel loss of her loved and long awaited baby sister is told in a gentle, understated way. As a reader, I felt close to the heroine; everything that happens to her is touchingly believable as revealed by the writer's sure hand.
The writer takes us to a place where adults seldom go, the often overlooked world of a grieving child.
A story that could have become maudlin and depressing becomes sensitive and inspiring in the capable hands of this writer.
I look forward to her next book.
Post a Comment