A Light in the Storm: The Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861 (Dear America Series)

by Karen Hesse

Overview

Newbery Medal winner Karen Hesse's Civil War diary, A LIGHT IN THE STORM, is now back in print with a beautiful new cover!In 1861, Amelia Martin's father is stripped of his post as a ship's captain when he is caught harboring the leader of a slave rebellion. Now he is an assistant lighthouse keeper on Fenwick Island, off the coast of Delaware -- a state wedged between the North and the South, just as Amelia is wedged between her warring parents. Amelia's mother blames her abolitionist husband for their living conditions, which she claims are taking a toll on her health. Amelia observes her mother's hate and her father's admiration for Abraham Lincoln. But slavery is the deeper issue separating the two sides. As the Civil War rages on, Amelia slowly learns that she cannot stop the fighting, but by keeping watch in the lighthouse each day, lighting the lamps, cleaning the glass, and rescuing victims of Atlantic storms, she can still make a difference.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545415613
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/2011
Series:	Dear America Series
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,060,211
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Karen Hesse is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of many books for children. Her titles include Witness, The Cats in Krasinski Square, and the Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust, among many others. She lives in Vermont with her husband and two teenaged daughters.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-8-This diary chronicles 15-year-old Amelia Martin's chaotic life during the turbulent first year of the Civil War. Amelia's father is the assistant lighthouse keeper at Fenwick Island off the coast of southern Delaware. Amelia willingly shares in the duties of standing watch and maintaining the equipment. Through her diary, readers learn that her father sides with the Union while her mother favors the Confederacy, and that their marriage is crumbling just as the country threatens to divide. Amelia admits that while at one time she agreed with her mother's views, she now believes in the abolition of slavery and sympathizes with President Lincoln. When a friend drowns in a skating accident, Amelia becomes friendly with his brother, Daniel, and soon develops a romantic relationship that continues to grow after Daniel volunteers for the Union Army. In the style of light keepers' logs, each entry records the date, weather, and wind conditions. An appended historical note offers more information about the Civil War. Sure to please historical fiction fans as well as followers of the series.-Shawn Brommer, Southern Tier Library System, Painted Post, NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In this new addition to the Dear America series, life in 1919 is peaceful and happy for Nellie Lee Love and her family in the little town of Bradford Corners, Tennessee. Not much happens; about the only excitement is the occasional letter from Nellie's Uncle Pace, still a soldier in France. The arrival each month of the NAACP magazine, The Crisis, is the only communication southern blacks have with the larger black community, and Daddy Love faithfully picks it up at his barbershop, reading it cover to cover. Then one day, the town's sheriff confiscates the shop's copies of The Crisis, and warns the men there that anyone belonging to the NAACP is asking for trouble from the Ku Klux Klan. A wire comes announcing that Uncle Pace is coming home. But when he does, he's been badly injured. As the sheriff tells it, he got drunk and fell asleep on the railroad tracks, where he was hit by a train. Everyone knows that Pace did not drink at all. He dies, and Daddy, realizing that this suspicious death has probably been the work of the Klan, decides to protect his family by moving them to Chicago. Here he hopes to set up a new undertaking business. Life in the city is far different for the Love girls from what they thought it would be. They must adapt to crowded apartment living, new neighbors, a tough new school, and making new friends, none of which is easy. But these discomforts are nothing to compare with the race riot that occurs that summer. The Loves get through it unscathed, but with the realization that they did not leave the problems of racism behind when they left Tennessee. It is this knowledge that gives Nellie and the rest of the Loves the impetus to becomeactivelyinvolved in the fight against prejudice and to begin the long march to full equality as Americans. It's an inspiring story, and one that brings to life the great black migration of that era from the south to the cities of the north. This part of American history is too often glossed over in textbooks, but must be understood in the context of modern race relations. (Fiction. 11-14)

Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR DEAR AMERICA:

"More than a supplement to classroom textbooks, this series is an imaginative, solid entre into American history." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"An impressive series that will challenge students to make connections from prominent historical events to relevant life situations . . . A wonderful asset to the classroom as well as to home libraries." --CHILDREN'S BOOK REVIEW SERVICE

"Engaging, accessible historical fiction." --SLJ

"The Dear America diaries represent the best of historical fiction for any age." --CHICAGO TRIBUNE

From the Publisher