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I will carry that baby to Zion," I shout at them, "just see if I don't!" Well! I did it! I have left them all quite speechless. In 1856, 12-year-old Charlotte and her widowed father are members of a Welsh handcart company on the Mormon Trail, so poor they cannot afford wagons but must push carts from Iowa City to Utah. When a woman in the company dies giving birth, and her husband is too distraught to care for the baby girl, Charlotte grandly offers to care for the baby, whom she names Rose. But taking care of Rose turns out to be much harder than Charlotte expected. She's stuck; she can't give Rose back. As she struggles along the trail with the infant, she comes to love Rose, and to dream of life with "her" baby, even though Papa and others remind her that she will have to give Rose back to her father when they part ways at the end of the trail.
评论 (5)
《学校图书馆杂志》(School Library Journal)书评
Gr 5-8-As they travel to Utah, a group of Welsh immigrants are sustained by their Mormon faith and little else. Motherless Charlotte, 12, and her loving father are among the followers. On the ocean, the prairies, and finally into the mountains, the journey is difficult and deadly. When a young woman dies in childbirth, her husband can't face the baby. Thinking of her own mother's death during childbirth, Charlotte offers to take over the care of the infant-except for feeding. It is a demanding task for one so young, and her need for help is obvious. A ghostly white lady haunts the edge of Charlotte's consciousness in a mild evocation of spiritual support, but as food and supplies run short, Charlotte's high spirits gradually adjust to reality. Amid quoting scriptures and singing songs, the protagonist's clear innocence and goodness sometimes leaves the narrative teetering on the edge of saccharine indulgence. However, physical hardships and the emotional toll of being part of an often-misunderstood religious group help bring some balance. Despite a large cast, Cannon manages to distinguish most of her characters. Even though this is valuable as one of a very few books to show readers the Mormon Church from the inside and with sympathy, the focus is on the characters and not on the faith. Based on historical fact, the book offers a genuine headstrong girl in hardscrabble circumstances with a lightness of heart and a strong will to do right.-Carol A. Edwards, Sonoma County Library, Santa Rosa, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
出版社周刊评论
In Cannon's (Shadow Brothers) strongly sketched pioneer novel, Mormons emigrating from Wales traverse the West with pushcarts, and a bold 12-year-old girl shoulders the additional burden of an infant whose mother has died in childbirth. Narrator Charlotte, a storyteller who dreams of fame, impulsively volunteers for the challenge to impress the grown women when they can't seem to make the baby's grief-stricken father attend to her. Cannon's realistic details do justice to Charlotte's humorous and exhausting experiences with the infant she names Rose, and to Charlotte's vacillating resentment and fierce love for her charge. The author populates the handcart train with a conflict-charged cast, including the imperious Brother and Sister Roberts, the pitiable widow who nurses Rose along with her own daughter, and the enigmatic and scarred Sister Catherine Jones, whom Charlotte initially imagines a witch but ultimately befriends. While offering some insight into Mormon doctrine, Cannon also proposes personal motivations for her Welsh characters' embrace of a new religion. Charlotte herself blossoms through her sacrifice, and her maturation will likely endear her to readers. Ages 8-12. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
《儿童读物杂志》(Horn Book)书评
(Intermediate, Middle School) While many pioneers went West in prairie schooners driven by oxen teams, others walked, pushing handcarts loaded with their possessions. Cannon delves into her own heritage to concoct a unique coming-of-age story about a spirited Mormon girl who made such a journey. Charlotte's first-person narrative traces her voyage with like-minded souls from their native Wales to their first stop, Boston, where the first Americans they meet press anti-Mormon pamphlets into their hands. The novel isn't so much about persecution, however, as it is about how this distinct group of people, united by their faith, faced the unexpected challenges that befell all pioneers. At the start of the handcart company's trek from Iowa City (arrived at by train from Boston) to ""the promised land"" of Utah, Charlotte never would have guessed that she'd become the main caregiver to a baby girl, a responsibility acquired when the baby's mother dies in childbirth. Charlotte is a delightfully opinionated narrator, religious but not pious, with a caustic wit (""The best thing you can say about this bonnet is that it's not as ugly as my other one""); and though she can neither read nor write, she is a natural storyteller. It becomes clear over time that her ongoing fantasy-a future that includes life with baby Rose-is destined to hurt her, but with the help of some intriguing supporting characters, she does what she knows she must do when Rose's father eventually comes to reclaim his daughter. The distinction between the Charlotte who began the journey and the one who finishes it is succinctly conveyed by John, the boy likely to become her husband someday. He says it's true that she's still a thirteen-year-old girl, but she's no longer a child. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus评论
Cannon (On the Go with Pirate Pete and Pirate Joe, p. 650, etc.) returns after several years with an engrossing, detailed, thoroughly real story of faith, family, and community. Twelve-year-old Charlotte and her father are part of a band of several hundred Welsh Mormons making an arduous journey to Utah in 1856. The Mormon Church sponsors the trip, but cannot afford to make it easy on the pilgrims: after a ship to Boston and a train to Iowa City, the families, organized into bands of 70 people, must push their belongings across the prairie in handcarts. Impetuous, lively Charlotte still grieves for her mam, who died not long before the trip began, and recites the names of her dead brothers and sister, "David. Robert. Owen. William. Ann," as a way of reminding God that they were important to her. On the ocean voyage, Charlotte finds a small doll and carries it about for several days before seeking out its owner, but at the start of the pushcart section she finds a better substitute for all she's lost: a newborn baby whose mother, a friend of Charlotte's, dies in childbirth. The baby's father is too grief-stricken to even look at the child, and Charlotte defies the women of her group by insisting that she will carry it to Utah, she will care for it and love it. And she does. Caring for the infant, whom Charlotte names Rose, is more difficult than Charlotte expects, but she conquers all obstacles with believable spirit and the help of the women who surround and support her, and who, in the end, help her make the right decision about Rose's future. Pinpoint historical details never overwhelm the force of the story, emotions ring true throughout, and the large cast of characters comes vividly to life, none more than Charlotte, strong and lovely. (Fiction. 8-12)
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Gr. 5-8. A descendant of Mormon pioneers, Cannon draws on her own family stories and other first-person accounts for this moving, realistic novel about 13-year-old Charlotte, who leaves Wales with her widower dad in 1856, bound for the promised land in Zion, Utah. They travel in a company of 700 Mormons--first by ship to Boston, then by cattle car to Iowa City, and then, in a smaller group, pushing handcarts for 65 days across the prairie and the mountains. Cannon tells the community story through the first-person narrative of one young girl, who speaks of religion as part of daily life: Bible readings, sermons, and always funeral services. Half-reluctantly, Charlotte takes on the care of a baby whose mother has died in childbirth, and the relationship is beautifully drawn, honest about the pesky, screaming burden on her back as well as about their deep physical bond. Then the baby's dad wants her back. Most moving are the women's stories, some of them with wrenching family secrets, reminiscent of Pam Conrad's storytelling in her classic Prairie Songs (1985). Hazel Rochman.