Synopses & Reviews
Twelve-year-old Samuel Collier is a lowly commoner on the streets of London. So when he becomes the page of Captain John Smith and boards the Susan Constant, bound for the New World, he cant believe his good fortune. Hes heard that gold washes ashore with every tide. But beginning with the stormy journey and his first contact with the native people, he realizes that the New World is nothing like he imagined. The lush Virginia shore where they establish the colony of James Town is both beautiful and forbidding, and its hard to know whos a friend or foe. As he learns the language of the Algonquian Indians and observes Captain Smiths wise diplomacy, Samuel begins to see that he can be whomever he wants to be in this new land.
Synopsis
A powerful and unflinching story of a family caught in the period of Reconstruction. The year is 1867, the South has been defeated, and the American Civil War is over. But the conflict goes on. Yankees now patrol the streets of Richmond, Virginia, and its citizens, both black and white, are struggling to redefine their roles and relationships. By day, fourteen-year-old Shadrach apprentices with a tailor and sneaks off for reading lessons with Rachel, a freed slave, at her school for African-American children. By night he follows his older brother Jeremiah to the meetings of a group whose stated mission is to protect Confederate widows like their mother. But as the true murderous intentions of the group, now known as the Ku Klux Klan, are revealed, Shad finds himself trapped between old loyalties and what he knows is right.
A.B. Westrick provides a glimpse into the enormous social and political upheaval of the time.
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About the Author
Elisa Carbone lives in Maryland and West Virginia.