Overview

Through the eyes of twelve-year-old Lorraine this haunting novel from the award-winning author of Hidden and Hush gives insight and understanding into a little known part of history--the Irish potato famine. It is the autumn of 1846 in Ireland. Lorraine and her brother are waiting for the time to pick the potato crop on their family farm leased from an English landowner. But this year is different--the spuds are mushy and ruined. What will Lorraine and her family do? Then Lorraine meets Miss Susannah, the daughter of the wealthy English landowner who owns Lorraine's family's farm, and the girls form an unlikely friendship that they must keep a secret from everyone. Two different cultures come together in a deserted Irish meadow. And Lorraine has one question: how can she help her family survive? A little known part of history, the Irish potato famine altered history forever and caused a great immigration in the later part of the 1800s. Lorraine's story is a heartbreaking and ultimately redemptive story of one girl's strength and resolve to save herself and her family against all odds.

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9798200651733

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Reviews

"Irish-born Drummey's lilting voice embraces the unfamiliar words sprinkled throughout the text . . . Her ability to switch back and forth between characters, especially in conversations, feels effortless.-- ""Booklist Starred Audio"" ""Napoli skillfully evokes Lorraine's close-knit community, interweaving elements of Irish culture, history, and land- and seascape in ways that make the story accessible and appealing...A timely reminder about conditions in our current world."" -- "" Horn Book"" ""Narrator Sarah Jane Drummey vividly brings to life the beautiful yet devastated landscape of Ireland during the Great Famine of 1845-49. The soft tones and inflections of her native Irish accent conjure a rich air of authenticity that make the events of the story all too real...The result is a work that will stay with the listener long after it is over. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""The first-person narrative portrays Lorraine's family and community with realistically drawn personalities and relationships as well as fine-tuned ethical dilemmas, while sketching in the backdrop of the wider catastrophe. A moving personal story."" -- ""Booklist (starred review)"""

Author Information

Donna Jo Napoli is the acclaimed and award-winning author of many novels, both fantasies and contemporary stories. She won the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water in 1997. Her novel Zel was named an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon, and a School Library Journal Best Book, and a number of her novels have been selected as ALA Best Books. She is a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Having spent ten years as a respected theater actor in her native Ireland and the U.K., Sarah-Jane Drummey has had the good fortune to consistently work with some of the world's best-known and successful directors. Her regular collaboration with Tony Award-winning Garry Hynes and companies such as Druid, has seen her play pivotal roles on some of the world's main stages, including the Abbey Theatre, London's National Theatre, New York's Lincoln Center, and Kennedy Center D.C.

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