Fourteen-year-old Martha is torn between her love for her myth and superstition and her hunger for knowledge and adventure
The superstitious folks of Blue Isle believe that a child born in a storm is born to trouble. But fourteen-year-old Martha only wants to go to high school, not end up making quilts and married to some local island boy. Getting an education means leaving the island, where she was raised by her grandmother Titay - and where she's expected to follow in Titay's footsteps as a midwife.
When a stranger washes ashore, Titay and Martha rescue him, but the other islanders fear he's brought sickness and death to their home. Martha is fascinated by the young man, Hal Saunders, who's saving up to go back to school for marine biology. Little by little, he opens her eyes to a bigger world, making her more determined than ever to follow her dream. Soon Martha will face the toughest challenge of her life. Which path will she choose? And what if she makes the wrong decision?
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"Adolescent readers will easily empathize with [Martha's] predicament of feeling confused by the pull from so many different directions at this stage of life." - Library Journal ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mildred Pitts Walter (b. 1922) grew up in Louisiana. She was the first member of her family to attend college, and then became a teacher and civil rights activist. As a book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times, Walter noticed that there were few books about African Americans, especially for children, and decided to write them herself. She has written over twenty books for children, and has been heralded for her compelling portraits of African American family life. Walter was awarded the Coretta Scott King Award for Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World; Because We Are and Trouble's Child are Coretta Scott King Honor Books. Walter now lives in Denver, where she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
Grade 6-10 Caught between her desire to go on to high school and pressure from her peers and elderly grandmother to stay on their small Louisiana island and accept its ways and life style, 15-year-old Martha must struggle with this excruciatingly painful decision. She finds it difficult to adopt the ways and rituals that rule the lives of the island's people. Her yearning to see more of the world is dismissed constantly by her grandmother, her only family, who has guided and trained her to follow in her footsteps as the island's midwife. Martha, who has delayed the island tradition whereby girls announce their readiness to marry, knowing that by going through with it she'd be forsaking her longings for knowledge and adventure, eventually shows the strength to make the difficult decision. Walter immerses readers in Martha's internal struggle, holding their attention to the last page. The quickly paced text utilizes the native dialect, further adding to the aura of the isolated island setting as Walter shows how ritual and superstition dominate. The only noticeable weakness in the text is the lack of substantial development of the secondary characters. While Martha's particular problems are unique, adolescent readers will easily empathize with her predicament of feeling confused by the pull from so many different directions at this stage of life. Tom S. Hurlburt, Anoka County Library, Blaine, Minn.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindleedition edition. Read more Continue reading Read less
