Skip to main content

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

By
Faith, Hope, and Ivy June
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
280 pages
juvenile fiction
New York : Delacorte Press, 2009

Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs are both seventh-grade girls in Kentucky. That is where the obvious similarities end. Ivy June lives in Thunder Creek, in the mountains near the coal mines. She lives with her grandparents because her parents house is too full. They only live a stone's throw apart so she has chores at both households. There is no indoor plumbing and life is just plain simple in a complicated way. Catherine lives in a large house in a nice neighborhood of Lexington. Each of the children has their own bedroom and bathroom. They have a maid helping their mother as she recovers from an illness. Catherine has a cell phone and her own computer. Someone from Catherine's private all-girls school thinks up this fabulous idea of an exchange program between the two drastically different schools. Catherine and Ivy June are the lucky winners. Will they be able to form a friendship despite the prejudices and stereotypes held by those around them? How will each of them react to tragedy striking close to home?

A book full of fascinating characters. The girls' journal entries gave a realistic glimpse into their emotions and their heart. I am not embarrassed to say that I got a little weepy a few times while reading. I hope that kids who read this book will understand the lessons being taught and will learn why we shouldn't let stereotypes rule our thinking. Don't be surprised if Faith, Hope, and Ivy June pops up on the Newbery lists.
Labels:

Comments

Ms. Yingling said…
How have I missed so many titles? I had to add a bunch to my lists. Thanks for helping keep me on track1
August 31, 2009 at 4:01 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Blood in the Water

By
Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

By
A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...
Post a Comment
Read more