| Booktalk
#1
Howard and his father are traveling
to visit Howard's grandparents in Illinois. It's an exciting trip
for Howard as his father has let him help with the new Model T Ford.
The year is 1916 and Howard looks at the peeling wallpaper on the walls,
he wonders how many layers would have to be peeled to find the young people
that these people must have been. Grandma Tilly helps him understand
when she tells him the story of the family's experience during the Civil
War. Tilly's family held allegiance to the North as did most of the
people in the town. But one day, an elegant young woman from New
Orleans arrived and changed the family forever.
Booktalk #2
The River Between Us is an
historical novel set in the small town of Grand Tower, Illinois, on the
banks of the Mississippi River. The book begins in 1916 with 15-year-old
Howard Leland Hutchings traveling back to Grand View with his father, to
visit elderly relatives there. While there, Howard learns the history of
his family in Civil War times, when Howard’s grandparents were growing
up in that town. It was a period of great change for most of America’s
families, and the Pruitt family, Mrs. Pruitt, the twins Noah and Tilly,
and Cass, the youngest, are no different. Noah dreams of military glory,
while Tilly and Mrs. Pruitt worry about the coming war and losing Noah
to it. Cass has vivid visions of men, lots of men, dying. The two girls
and their brother have lived very simply at home with their mother until
one night when a Mississippi steamboat from New Orleans arrives in Grand
Tower. Two passengers, a beautiful young woman and a woman of darker complexion
who may be her slave, or at least her maid, have escaped from the South
just before the war begins. What is the secret of their impact on the Pruitt
family, and how will all these people experience the coming war? This mystery
and adventure tale is a real page-turner, lyrically written, set in a crucial
American time period. (Jean B. Bellavance for Pennsylvania
Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2004-2005)
Booktalk #3
The story opens in the year
1916, and Howard Hutchings, his doctor father and his young twin brothers
are traveling in a Model T to Grand Tower, Illinois to visit Howard’s grandparents,
great-aunt, and great-uncle. The story then flashes back to the year 1861.
Howard’s Grandma Tilly relates the events that occurred to their family
during the Civil War. A steamboat from New Orleans brings two strangers
to their town, the glamorous Delphine and her companion Calinda.
Tilly’s mother offers to take them in, since things are too dangerous for
them to continue their trip to St. Louis, and they have no where to go.
Delphine is fair and beautiful, but what about the darker-skinned woman,
Calinda? Could she possibly be Delphine’s slave? Tilly learns
more about these two mysterious women when she and Delphine travel to the
battlefront to find her injured brother, Noah. For a look into the
female experiences during the Civil War, read The River Between Us. Find
out more about New Orleans society during this period, and read this richly
layered book which reveals some of the harsh realities of the Civil War.
(Betty Neal, South
Carolina Book Awards, 2006)
Booktalk #4
Young Howard
Leland Hutchings learns his father’s true history when he makes a special
trip to his father’s old home “astride the Devil’s Backbone.” He meets
his grandmother Tilly, her husband Doctor Hutchings (his grandfather) and
Noah, Tilly’s twin brother and his wife, Delphine. He discovers his family’s
secret. Black-eyed
Susan Award nominee 2005-2006
Booktalk
#5
The year is 1916. Howard and
his dad are visiting relatives in Grand Tower, Illinois. Grandma Tilly
is quite a storyteller and Howard learns what the town was like in 1861.
The Civil War was going on and the fighting was coming closer and closer
to Grand Tower. One day a steamboat from New Orleans came to their Mississippi
town. Two beautiful young women got off the boat. The town was not happy
when Tilly’s mama invited them to stay with her. The glamorous women with
French accents were the talk of the town. Some thought they were Confederate
spies. Mama trusted them, yet Tilly and her sister kept trying to find
out what they had in their large trunks. Just looking at the beautiful
dresses made her wonder about them. When Tilly’s brother Noah joined the
Union army, the family had more serious concerns. Mama did not hear from
Noah for a long time and feared he might be wounded. She asked Tilly and
Delphine to go to one of the military camps and see if Noah was there.
Their concern for Noah and the awful conditions of the military camp brought
the girls together. They found Noah near death and worked to get him healthy
enough to make the trip back home. As Grandma Tilly’s story comes to a
close, Howard is surprised to learn the true identity of the travelers
from New Orleans and their place in Howard’s family history. Oklahoma
Sequoyah Young Adult Book Award nominee, 2005-2006 |
