Blue

by Joyce Moyer Hostetter Narrated by Kate Forbes

Overview

When thirteen-year-old Ann Fay Honeycutt's father goes off to fight Hitler, he hands her a pair of blue overalls to become “man of the house.” Her feelings are mixed: “Wearing britches so I could take the place of my daddy wasn't the same
as wearing them so I could climb trees.” Ann Fay fights her resentment at losing the life she'd known just as she fights to keep the weeds and the blue wisteria from overtaking the family vegetable garden. But when a polio outbreak changes
everything again, remarkable Ann Fay needs all of her guts and resolve to face the unpredictable future.

Editorial Reviews

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-A compelling story of resourcefulness, loss, and the healing power of friendship. When Ann Fay Honeycutt's father goes off to war in 1944, the 13-year-old steps into his overalls as the oldest of four children. Despite support from Junior, her 17-year-old neighbor, the daunting tasks of tending the family's large vegetable garden, helping with household chores, and looking after her sisters and brother suddenly become overwhelming. Then Bobby, four, contracts polio and is taken to an emergency quarantine hospital. He dies, and Ann Fay must help her family deal with their grief. While the escalating trials have served to increase her toughness and determination, Ann Fay's world is further rocked when she contracts the devastating disease and is herself hospitalized. The races are not separated in the contagious ward in Hickory, NC, and she and Imogene, a "colored girl," become fast friends. Hostetter based this novel on the true story of the polio hospital built in Hickory during the epidemic. Back matter includes lists of nonfiction, videos, and children's novels about World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and polio. Fans of such titles as Avi's Don't You Know There's a War On? (HarperCollins, 2001) and Patricia Reilly Giff's Lily's Crossing (Delacorte, 1997) will enjoy this dramatic story.-Kathryn Childs, Morris Mid/High School, OK Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Blue, 13, writes of Hickory, N.C., January 1944-June 1945. Roosevelt is president; the war and a polio epidemic are underway; Hickory's camp becomes an emergency polio hospital and Blue's father goes off to war, giving her overalls to wear as "man of the house." Blue, her twin sisters, young brother and mother try to carry on with the help of a teenaged neighbor and his mother, but it's much harder than Blue could have anticipated. First, her brother contracts polio and her mother stays at the hospital with him, leaving Blue to cope with minding the twins and managing everything. Then, it's Blue who is stricken. In the hospital, she meets and makes friends with Imogene, a black girl, the first she's ever actually been close to. Imogene describes "a muddy wide river between your people and mines," and indeed it is. Chock full of life, history and character development, this intriguing historical narrative tries almost too hard to fit everything in-the war, polio and its treatment, death, race relations, a family's near disintegration and a mother's breakdown. The density and the first-person voice will turn some away, but the subject of polio is a rare one in children's fiction, and these characters and their story are worth getting to know. (endnotes, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 10-12)

From the Publisher

"The intriguing history of the illness and the powerful first-person voice will propel readers through to the novel's deeply satisfying conclusion." —Booklist

"Chock full of life, history and character development. . . . The subject of polio is a rare one in children's fiction, and these characters and their story are worth getting to know." —Kirkus Reviews

"This fascinating book will keep the reader captivated until the very last page." —Children's Literature

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175037297
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Series:	Bakers Mountain Stories , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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