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Books | The Wonder of Charlie Anne
Parents Choice Silver Medal Charlie Anne is devastated when her father must go north to build roads after the Depression hits. She and her siblings are left with their rigid cousin, Mirabel, and a farm full of chores. The only solace Charlie Anne finds is by the river, where the memory of her mother is strongest. Then her neighbor Old Mr. Jolly brings home a new wife, Rosalyn, who shows up in pants—pants!—the color of red peppers. With her arrives Phoebe, a young African American girl who has also lost her mother. Phoebe is smart and fun and the perfect antidote to Charlie Anne’s lonely days. The girls soon forge a friendship and learn from each other in amazing ways. But when hatred turns their town ugly, it’s almost more than they can bear. Now it’s up to Charlie Anne and Phoebe to prove that our hearts are always able to expand. Reviewsê “Charlie Anne makes use of her “most terrible mad look” with some frequency, but she’s most furious about her papa’s heading north from Massachusetts to build roads for Roosevelt’s New Deal, abandoning family and farm to the joyless clutches of her late mother’s cousin Mirabel. When not busy baking hard-times vinegar pies (almost like lemon!) or mucking out the privy, Charlie Anne has a lovely, supernatural way of interacting with the world; her recently buried mother, the river, the molasses-eyed cows and even the clothesline communicate with her regularly. “Fusco’s mellifluous style often sounds like singing: “Go do this, the new mama tells me, and I do it, just because.” Two conflicts loom largest: dyslexic Charlie Anne’s battle with “jumbled letters” and her controversial friendship with an African-American girl who moves into the all-white community and stirs up its “backwater” hatred. Good humor, kindness and courage triumph in this warm, richly nuanced novel that cheers the heart like a song sweetly sung. (Fiction. 9-13)” - Kirkus Reviews, (Starred Review)ê "When Charlie Anne’s mother dies, her cousin Mirabel arrives to take charge of her, her siblings, and their household. But the woman’s unremitting chore assignments and insistence on reading The Charm of Fine Manners send Charlie Anne to the barn, the fields, the river, and her mother’s gravesite to escape. Papa takes her older brother up north to try to earn money working on the roads, and Mirabel sends younger brother Peter to stay with relatives in Boston, leaving Charlie Anne even more inclined to befriend their new neighbors, the exotic pants-wearing Rosalyn and her ward, Phoebe, an African-American girl. The painful poverty and bigotry of the Depression era set the stage for Charlie Anne’s gradually increasing awareness of the impact and unfairness of prejudice and her power to make changes in the world and her own circumstances. The girl’s vinegar pie appears throughout the book as a symbol of her value to the family and her abilities, even as Mirabel’s own growth is reflected in her slow willingness to acknowledge Charlie Anne’s skill and her acceptance of Phoebe. Each character is distinct and adds flavor, but it’s Charlie Anne’s voice that resonates as she confronts both the hardships and unfairness of life, yet finds ways to change things for the better." –Carol A. Edwards, Denver Public Library, CO - School Library Journal, (Starred Review)
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Tending to GraceAwarded the American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award “Like Katherine Paterson’s classic The Great Gilly Hopkins…this quiet, beautiful first novel makes the search for home a searing drama.” Booklist, Starred Review |
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