<i>Faith, Hope, and Ivy June</i> (review)
2009; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 63; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.0.1116
ISSN1558-6766
Autores ResumoReviewed by: Faith, Hope, and Ivy June Karen Coats Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds . Faith, Hope, and Ivy June. Delacorte, 2009280 p. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-385-90588-6$19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-385-73615-2$16.99 Ad Gr. 6-9 Ivy June is a poor Kentucky mountain girl who, in an age of cell phones and computers, still goes to the bathroom in an outhouse; Catherine Combs is a wealthy private-school girl from Lexington. Their schools plan an exchange that has each girl living with the other for two weeks, journaling and reporting back to their schoolmates about their experiences. Although the book offers journal entries from both girls, this is by no means a balanced narrative; rather, it is Ivy June's story of seeing life beyond her mountain home. The girls experience the rather predictable culture shocks as well as the commonalities of friendship troubles, but it isn't until they both suffer serious worries about their loved ones—Catherine's mother has heart surgery while she is staying with Ivy June, and Ivy June's grandfather is trapped in a mining accident and may die—that they realize their true connections. There is a pretty fair balance of profound insight and trite banalities here; most interesting are Ivy June's observations about the way children fit into their families, with her and her brothers and sister integral members of her family with necessary work to do, and Catherine and her siblings earning more praise and attention without practically contributing to the daily functioning of the family. The girls are just a bit too golly-gee and mannerly, even in their private journals, to be wholly credible or interesting, but their situations are compelling and detailed enough to cause readers to give some serious thought to what they themselves take for granted. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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