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Giff, Patricia Reilly
LILY'S CROSSING
New York : Delacorte, 1997.
IL 5-8
ISBN 0385321422

(4 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

Lily has mixed feelings about summer vacation. She and her grandmother will go to Rockaway as usual. Her father cannot spend the summer there so it's just Lily and her grandmother. When they arrive at Rockaway, Lily finds out her friend Margaret is moving away. Margaret's father has gotten a job in a factory helping with the war effort. To make matters worse, Lily's father informs her that he has enlisted and will be leaving to join the war. Lily meets a young man who is staying with neighbors and immediately decides that he is a Nazi spy. As she gets to know Albert, she learns what a terrible price war takes on children from Europe. Spend time with Lily and Albert as they attempt to make sense of war.

Booktalk #2

Have you ever told a lie?  I know you!  Sure you have!  But, have you ever told a lie that might cost someone his life?  Well, Lily told a lie about Albert, and it just might cost Albert's life.   It is summer of 1944, and Lily is doing her usual thing, spending it with her grandmother in Rockaway.  But this year, it's different.  Her country is at war; her dad is overseas helping the war effort; her best friend, Margaret, and her family have moved to a war-time factory town.  Lily is lonely.  Then Albert, a refugee from Hungary, moves to town.  He has lost most of his family in the war, and he is very secretive.  As Lily and Albert become friends, she knows he's hiding something -- but what?  Can a lie really be such a bad thing?  Read LILY'S CROSSING.  (New Hampshire Great Stone Face Committee) 

Booktalk #3

Lily certainly could benefit from a good friend.  Well, she did have Margaret.  They saw each other every summer at Rockaway Beach on the Atlantic Ocean.  That's where Lily and her father, Poppy, and her grandmother went that summer of 1944.  Just like they did every summer.  But Margaret’s family abruptly moved away, and Poppy suddenly went off to war, and Lily needed help with her problem list:  First:  telling lies, second: daydreaming, third: needing friends, and fourth:  Gram.  That was the summer that she would meet Albert.  And no, contrary to her active imagination, he was not a spy.  He was a little boy, a war refugee from Hungary.  He had legs like a sea gull and a mop of curly hair, and parents lost to the war, and a sister left in another country, and a secret sown in his coat, and a heavy heart.  Will Albert be able to help Lily with her problem list?  Will Lily be able to help him get the one thing he really wants; if so, at what cost?  (Gail A. King, grking@bellsouth.net, University of South Carolina)

Booktalk #4

                        In the summer of 1944, World War II has affected everyone's life.  Mothers are worried about their sons, wives are concerned for their husbands, and daughters miss their daddies.  This is especially true for Lily.  She is so excited about spending the summer at the beach with her friend Margaret but when she arrives, Lily learns that Margaret’s family must move because of the war.  She also learns that her father must go overseas to the war.  The summer that Lily had looked so forward to is turning out to be a lonely time stuck with her grandmother who makes her practice the piano all the time.
                        Just when Lily thinks her summer is doomed, Albert shows up to live in the house next door.  Albert is Lily’s age, but he has experienced much more pain and devastation than the typical fifth grader.  As a refugee from Hungary, he has seen his parents die and has been separated from his sister.  Together, Albert and Lily work on a plan to reunite him with his sister, but the plan could be deadly for both of them.
                        Read the Newbery Honor book, Lily’s Crossing to find out how Lily and Albert become best friends who would do anything for each other.  (Allison L. Powell, powellal@pickens.k12.sc.us,  Pickens Elementary School, Pickens, South Carolina)

SUBJECTS:     World War, 1939-1945 --United States -- -- Fiction
                        Refugees -- Fiction
                        Friendship -- Fiction
                        Beaches -- Fiction

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