The Ballad of Lucy Whipple
By Karen Cushman
Price: $7.99
About the Book
In 1849 a twelve-year-old girl who calls herself Lucy is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a small California mining town at the height of the Gold Rush. There Lucy helps run a boarding house and looks for comfort in books while trying to find a way to return “home.”
For a girl who loves books and quiet places, the wilds of the west are anything but home.
- A Headstrong Heroine: Twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple decides she’d much rather be called Lucy, and she’d much rather be in Massachusetts than anywhere else.
- Pioneer Life: Lucy finds herself running a boarding house for rough-and-tumble miners, far from the life of comfort and books she misses.
- A Rich Historical Setting: Experience the grit and grime of a California mining camp in 1849, from dusty streets and mule droppings to the constant hope of striking it rich.
- A Heartfelt Family Story: Caught between her mother’s dreams for the future and her own longing for the past, Lucy must figure out what “home” really means.
Product Details
Reviews
“Cushman’s heroine is a delightful character, and the historical setting is authentically portrayed. Lucy’s story, as the author points out in her end notes, is the story of many pioneer women who exhibited great strength and courage as they helped to settle the West.”
School Library Journal, Starred
“The recent Newbery medalist plunks down two more strong-minded women, this time in an 1849 mining camp—a milieu far removed from the Middle Ages of her first novels, but not all that different when it comes to living standards. . . . With a story that is less a period piece than a timeless and richly comic coming-of-age story, Cushman remains on a roll.”
Kirkus Reviews with Pointers —
About the Book
In 1849 a twelve-year-old girl who calls herself Lucy is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a small California mining town at the height of the Gold Rush. There Lucy helps run a boarding house and looks for comfort in books while trying to find a way to return “home.”
For a girl who loves books and quiet places, the wilds of the west are anything but home.
- A Headstrong Heroine: Twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple decides she’d much rather be called Lucy, and she’d much rather be in Massachusetts than anywhere else.
- Pioneer Life: Lucy finds herself running a boarding house for rough-and-tumble miners, far from the life of comfort and books she misses.
- A Rich Historical Setting: Experience the grit and grime of a California mining camp in 1849, from dusty streets and mule droppings to the constant hope of striking it rich.
- A Heartfelt Family Story: Caught between her mother’s dreams for the future and her own longing for the past, Lucy must figure out what “home” really means.
Product Details
Reviews
“Cushman’s heroine is a delightful character, and the historical setting is authentically portrayed. Lucy’s story, as the author points out in her end notes, is the story of many pioneer women who exhibited great strength and courage as they helped to settle the West.”
School Library Journal, Starred
“The recent Newbery medalist plunks down two more strong-minded women, this time in an 1849 mining camp—a milieu far removed from the Middle Ages of her first novels, but not all that different when it comes to living standards. . . . With a story that is less a period piece than a timeless and richly comic coming-of-age story, Cushman remains on a roll.”
Kirkus Reviews with Pointers —
