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Summary
Summary
Growing up in rural Alabama in the 1950s, ten-year-old Alice has no one to talk to but Leroy, the black farm hand, but when Alice's doctor father moves the family to Tennessee, she has trouble fitting in and she sorely misses Leroy.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Ten-year-old Alice's father is both physically and morally fearless in the segregated South of the 1950s. Mistakenly believing his position as the rural area's only physician cloaks his family and friends in protection and special influence, he objects when his young, black employee Leroy, is beaten by bullies. When the community condones this mistreatment of the young man, Alice's father sells his Alabama property and resettles the family in Tennessee. Here there is a school that meets her parents' standards and for the first time Alice begins attending classes with other children. Being intellectually advanced and having neither stylish clothing nor a mother who joins the "right" organizations, her social fate is sealed when she says during a classroom discussion that she would be willing to attend school with blacks. Stressed also by her father's insistence that she conquer fear as he does by handling snakes, getting back on horses after being thrown off, and climbing perilous rock cliffs, Alice develops headaches. Through it all and her eventual coming to terms with her new life, the wise words and tales told by Leroy whisper in her mind's ear. Hearne's Eli's Ghost (McElderry, 1987) handles the somewhat similar themes of interracial friendship and rigid social structures in a much more lively and humorous way. Well described, but slowly developed like the way of life it evokes, this book is for patient readers looking for a serious story.-Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Hearne (Eliza's Dog) resurrects landscapes, characters and events from her childhood to create this gentle, reflective coming-of-age novel. Divided into two sections, the first part of the story takes place in Alabama from 1954 to 1955. Isolated in the country and home-schooled by her liberal parents (her father is a physician from India and her mother a "Yankee" concert harpist), Alice has no friends her own age. Her only companions outside her family are her cherished volume of fairy tales and Leroy, the black man employed by her family to help run the farm as well as her father's medical clinic. Through Alice's experiences with Leroy, readers view the struggles of a deeply divided South; Leroy's storytellingwhich often underscores the lessons gleaned from his own fight for freedomsticks with Alice long after a pivotal scene in which he is run out of town and her own family consequently moves to Tennessee. There (in the novel's second section, from 1955 to 1956), Alice must attend public school where she desperately wants to fit in with the other fifth graders, but she knows that she will always be different (when she sees everyone else dressed in identical shoes, she realizes "she could stay on this playground a thousand years and still look strange"). Her unconventional opinions (e.g., her opposition to segregation), which are scorned by her peers, shed light on her compassionate nature. A montage of impressions crystallizes the essence of each major character, and the author's fluid prose subtly conveys Alice's revelations about herself, her family and a prejudiced society. Ages 9-12. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Alice's family differs from their white neighbors in Alabama because her parents believe in racial equality. They move to Tennessee where Alice is again an outsider--especially after telling her classmates she'd stay in school even if it were integrated. Based on events in the author's own childhood, the story contains strong dramatic moments that frequently get lost in day-to-day minutiae. From HORN BOOK Spring 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 4^-7. Issues of personal freedom and racial equality form the backbone of this engaging, well-written story of a lonely, isolated girl growing up in 1950s rural Alabama and Tennessee. Ten-year-old Alice admires and fears her father, a respected country doctor, who at home is demanding and intolerant of any weakness or fear. She is not allowed to attend school, as does her brother, but is homeschooled; her only friend is Leroy, the black man who helps around their place and who offers Alice valuable perspective and support. But after Leroy is forced to leave town, the victim of racial prejudice, the family moves to Tennessee to provide better education opportunities for Alice and her brother. However, Alice doesn't fit in--she's picked on for being too tall and not having the "right" clothes, and for her open-minded views of racial equality; she spends her time lost in books, the only place where she can be, as Leroy always said, "home free." As Alice explores the many concepts of freedom--choice, equality, the pursuit of personal happiness--she develops the courage to stand up for what she believes in and to confront her father. Hearne's lush, lyrical prose, filled with visual and aural detail, eloquently captures the sights and sounds of the rural South. Realistic dialogue, well-defined characters, and fairly presented complex issues combine for a heartfelt look at the growing pains of an idealistic girl experiencing a less than ideal reality. --Shelle Rosenfeld