Behind the Mountains

by Edwidge Danticat

Overview

A lyrical and poignant coming-of-age story about one girl's immigration experience, as she moves from Haiti to New York City, by award-winning author Edwidge Danticat.

It is election time in Haiti, and bombs are going off in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. During a visit from her home in rural Haiti, Celiane Espérance and her mother are nearly killed. Looking at her country with new eyes, Celiane gains a fresh resolve to be reunited with her father in Brooklyn, New York.

The harsh winter and concrete landscape of her new home are a shock to Celiane, who witnesses her parents' struggle to earn a living and her brother's uneasy adjustment to American society, and at the same time encounters her own challenges with learning and school violence.

National Book Award finalist Edwidge Danticat weaves a beautiful, honest, and timely story of the American immigrant experience in this luminous novel about resilience, hope, and family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338745719
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	364,434
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Edwidge Danticat is the author of many award-winning books, including Untwine, an NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Literary Work; Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah's Book Club pick; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award nominee; Brother, I’m Dying, a National Book Critics Circle winner and Huit jours. She is also a recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant. Edwidge lives with her family in Miami, Florida.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Behind the Mountains:

"The excellence of the writing and the resilient outlook of both first-person fictions set a high standard for this series." — The Horn Book

Praise for Anacaona, Golden Flower:

"Readers will connect with Danticat's immediate, poetic language." — Booklist

Praise for Untwine:

NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Literary Work

2015 VOYA Magazine Perfect Ten

CCBC Choices List selection

Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Books of the Year, 2016

New York Public Library Best Books for Teens selection

"I fell in love with Untwine. It's a book I want to give my daughter, my sister, my best friend. Danticat is a master." — Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming

"A genuinely moving exploration of the pain of separation." — The New York Times Book Review

* "Danticat... shines in this young adult novel... A bit mystery, a bit romance... a touch of humor, well-crafted characters and strong writing make this a book to recommend." — School Library Journal, starred review

"This tale of grief and resilience should appeal to people who love Danticat's fiction for adults, too[.] Danticat takes several staples of young imaginations (and some old ones, too) — and spins something beautiful yet down to earth out of each one. While Danticat fully grounds Giselle in her identity as a Haitian-American teen in Miami, this gentle young artist could speak to any teen anywhere coping with a major loss." — The Philadelphia Inquirer

*"At once heartbreaking and uplifting." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

"An honest, endearing exploration of family, grief, and perseverance." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Grade 5 Up-As the best student in the class, Celiane is given a "sweet little book" in which she decides to keep a journal. Her entries date from October 2000 to March 2001, and chronicle the family's departure from their homeland of Haiti to join her father, who had immigrated to New York City five years earlier. In graceful prose, Danticat seamlessly weaves together all that such a decision involves: the difficulties of rural life on the island and a longing for an absent parent combined with a fondness for her tiny mountain village with "the rainbows during sun showers- the smell of pinewood burning, the golden-brown sap dripping into the fire"; and the excitement and violence of Port-au-Prince where Celiane and her mother are injured in bombings before the elections. When Celiane, her mother, and her 19-year-old brother are finally approved to enter the U.S., the teen knows everything will be all right as soon as she sees her father, but there are the unavoidable frictions among family members, fueled not only by the separation and adjustment to a new country, but also by the natural maturing process that the children undergo. In this gem of a book, Danticat explores the modern immigrant experience through the eyes of one teen.

School Library Journal

In this novel, part of the First Person Fiction series, 13-year-old Celiane recounts her journey from her mountain village in Haiti to join her father in Brooklyn in a "charming, innocent voice," according to PW. Ages 11-15. (Feb.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A 13-year-old Haitian girl describes, over the course of five months, her life in Haiti and then in New York as she, her mother, and her brother join her father, who left Haiti years before. Celiane loves her life in the mountain village of Beau Jour; she is near her grandparents, the mountains agree with her, and she is the recent recipient of a journal from her teacher—because she is such a good writer. The only hole in her life is that left by her father, who sends a cassette tape addressing each family member in turn, but from whom she feels increasingly estranged by time and distance. When the bus she and her mother are riding in gets blown up in pre-election violence—the year is 2000, and Jean-Bertrand Aristide is running for re-election—the effort to reunite with her father moves into high gear. Her Tante Rose, a nurse, pulls some diplomatic strings, and suddenly they are all together in New York. This is Danticat’s (After the Dance, p. 782, etc.) first novel for children, and it shares with others that have gone before it a tendency to write down to the audience. The diary entries are by and large flat; Celiane writes of the violence in curiously disengaged tones, considering that she and her mother are victims. Likewise, when the narrative moves to New York, the upheaval this creates for the family is related from a distance, despite the supposed current nature of the diary: "It wasn’t anything [Papa] said, just the way his face looked, tightly drawn and strained. Perhaps we, especially me, were going to be more of a burden to him than he had first thought." It is unfortunate that there are so few children’s novels of Haiti that this offering naturally begscomparison to Frances Temple’s electrifying A Taste of Salt (1992). This, alas, is a pale successor. (Fiction. 9-14)

Kirkus Reviews

Author Edwidge Danticat narrates the introduction and afterword of her novel, providing context by relating her own immigrant experience and feelings about her heroine. Taking over to narrate the story, Ella Turenne uses a youthful voice and light French accent to portray Celiane, a Haitian girl. The violence taking place in her country takes center stage when she and her mother are almost killed in a bombing while visiting an aunt in Port-au-Prince. Turenne contrasts the comfort Celiane feels in her rural home and school with her longing to be reunited with her father in Brooklyn. Turenne also expresses the worsening anxiety of Celiane’s mother and the love of the aunt who helps the family reunite. In New York, Celiane is surprised by the cold weather, school issues, and the tensions in her family. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2022 - AudioFile

Author Edwidge Danticat narrates the introduction and afterword of her novel, providing context by relating her own immigrant experience and feelings about her heroine. Taking over to narrate the story, Ella Turenne uses a youthful voice and light French accent to portray Celiane, a Haitian girl. The violence taking place in her country takes center stage when she and her mother are almost killed in a bombing while visiting an aunt in Port-au-Prince. Turenne contrasts the comfort Celiane feels in her rural home and school with her longing to be reunited with her father in Brooklyn. Turenne also expresses the worsening anxiety of Celiane’s mother and the love of the aunt who helps the family reunite. In New York, Celiane is surprised by the cold weather, school issues, and the tensions in her family. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2022 - AudioFile