In 1863 twelve-year-old Anna, disguised as a boy and accompanied by her younger brother Jed, leaves their Pennsylvania home and makes the difficult journey to join their wounded father in Winchester, Virginia, where they find themselves in danger from Con
In 1863, as the Civil War rages, Anna Sunday, a motherless 12-year-old disguised as a boy, bravely sets out with her younger brother from her Pennsylvania home into Rebel territory to find their father, a Union soldier who has been shot. They travel with only their cousin's old horse, Samson, who responds to commands given in Biblical verse (to get the horse to move, they shout, "Love thy neighbor"). Along the way they meet and are helped by a traveling sutler and the son of a freed slave; at last, they reach the Virginia house where a feisty older woman is lovingly tending to their Pa, even though she is a Rebel (Anna and Jed expect her to be a "she-devil"). Anna and Jed begin to help nurse their father back to health but are whisked away as Lee's army approaches, and they experience life in a Union fort and a Confederate prison before finally returning home. As in her previous novels (I Am Regina; Moon of Two Dark Horses), Keehn draws on historical episodes to shape an involved tale that is at least plausible if not always fully believable (such as when Anna physically attacks thieves and guards). She does not flinch from descriptions of dying soldiers and the fetid conditions of prison life. Frequent twists and turns in the plot, along with the camouflaged heroine's coming of age, will likely hold readers' interest. Ages 10-14. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Gr 5-8-When they receive word that their father, a Union soldier, has been wounded in battle more than 100 miles away, 12-year-old Anna Sunday and her younger brother, Jed, leave their homestead near Gettysburg, PA, and make a dangerous journey through Rebel territory to find him. Motherless for three years, the two children have no other adults to help them, save simpleminded Cousin Ezekiel, who stays behind to safeguard the farm. Disguised as a boy, "Adam" and Jed set off with Samson, the family horse, almost immediately falling into the company of the grandiose Mister Eli, a conniving rascal who peddles contraband goods to both sides. With his help, the children cross through Maryland and Virginia and eventually find their father, a comatose amputee in a farmhouse owned by Confederate widow Katherine McDowell, who has lovingly nursed him along. Learning that her house lies in the path of the advancing Confederate army, Abraham orders his children to flee to a nearby Union fort. When it is abandoned, Anna and Jed, along with other women, children, and wounded are then transferred to Castle Thunder, a Confederate prison; once released, they again try to reunite with their father. Anna's lively, first-person narrative and the novel's girl-in-disguise intrigue create not only an absorbing perspective of the Civil War's impact on the home front but also an understanding of 19th-century gender roles. While Keehn is a bit heavy-handed with Anna's "Look what I can do now that I'm in trousers!" moralizing, she offers a well-paced coming-of-age story in which love and courage transcend war and politics.-William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
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