Synopses & Reviews
When her mother becomes seriously ill, Texas teen Giny Dorris is sent to England to stay with Hugh, the father she hardly knows. Hugh, a professor, is involved in a living archaeology project spending a year with a group of people on an Iron Age farm without any modern conveniences. Virtually trapped, far from home with no phone, fast food, or running water, Ginny soon discovers that she has suprising hidden talents and strengths. When Ginny can no longer tolerate being away from her ailing mother, she makes a daring escape back to America. There, another set of difficult new circumstances await her, but Ginny begins to realize that her "time apart" in the Iron Age has given her new tools for adapting to change. A dynamic coming-of-age tale (Booklist, starred review). Stanley uses her fascinating and original setting to good effect
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Synopsis
The last thing Ginny wants is to be sent away....But when her mother is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, she's packed off to England to stay with Hugh, the father she hardly knows. Hugh is part of a living history research project, which means he lives on an Iron Age farm without any modern conveniences. A summer without regular showers, TV, or the Internet could be a horror show, but Ginny manages to cope and even makes friends, including the handsome but mysterious Corey. Soon she's become a valued member of her Iron Age family. But is she strong enough to survive not knowing what is happening to her mother? And can Corey help her escape this prison of the past?
2000 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA) and Teacher's Choices for 2000 (IRA)
About the Author
Diane Stanley is the recipient of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, and the 2000
Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award for the body of her work. "There is no one like Diane Stanley...for picture-book biography -- she brings to the genre an uncanny ability to clarify and compress dense and tricky historical matter, scrupulous attention to visual and verbal nuances, and a self-fulfilling faith in her readers' intelligence"
(Publishers Weekly). Diane Stanley and her husband, Peter Vennema, have worked together on other books in Diane's award-winning biography series, including
Shaka: King Of The Zulus, Bard Of Avon: The Story Of William Shakespeare, and
Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations. Diane has also illustrated The Last Princess: The Story Of Princess Ka'iulani Of Hawaii, by Fay Stanley, and she has written and illustrated Michelangelo, Peter The Great, Joan Of Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci, Cleopatra and Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter. Her first novel, A Time Apart, was selected as one of 1999's Top 10 First Novels by ALA Booklist. Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema live in Houston, Texas.