Sarny: A Life Remembered

by Gary Paulsen, Jerry Pinkney (Illustrator)

Overview

So many readers have written and asked: What happened to Sarny, the young slave girl who learned to read in Nightjohn? Extraordinary things happened to her, from the moment she fled the plantation in the last days of the Civil War, suddenly a free woman in search of her sold-away children, until she found them and began a new life. Sarny's story gives a panoramic view of America in a time of trial, tragedy, and hoped-for change, until her last days in the 1930s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780440219736
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	08/28/1999
Series:	Sarny Series
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	661,791
Product dimensions:	4.26(w) x 6.88(h) x 0.51(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Gary Paulsen is the distinguished author of many critically acclaimed books for young people, including three Newbery Honor books: The Winter Room, Hatchet, and Dogsong. He won the Margaret A. Edwards Award given by the American Library Association for his lifetime achievement in young adult literature. Among his Random House books are Road Trip (written with his son, Jim Paulsen); Family Ties; Vote; Crush; Flat Broke; Liar, Liar; Paintings from the Cave; Woods Runner; Masters of Disaster; Lawn Boy; Notes from the Dog; The Amazing Life of Birds; Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day; How Angel Peterson Got His Name; Guts; and five books about Francis Tucket's adventures in the Old West. Gary Paulsen has also published fiction and nonfiction for adults. He divides his time between his home in Alaska, his ranch in New Mexico, and his sailboat on the Pacific Ocean.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A satisfying sequel...It is a great read, with characters both to hate and to cherish, and a rich sense of what it really was like then." —Booklist, Starred

Editorial Reviews

"A satisfying sequel...It is a great read, with characters both to hate and to cherish, and a rich sense of what it really was like then." —Booklist, Starred

From the Publisher

A 94-year-old former slave recalls the years after the Civil War. PW called this sequel to Nightjohn "somewhat contrived" but a "page-turner." Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Grades 6-9
Sarny, a child in Paulsen's Nightjohn (Doubleday, 1993), narrates the story of her life from girlhood until 1930, when she is 94 years old. Born into slavery and taught to read by the slave Nightjohn, she marries, bears two babies, and sees her husband worked to death. Her children are sold just as the Civil War ends. Accompanied by another freed slave, Sarny journeys toward New Orleans looking for her children, and meets Miss Laura, a light-skinned black woman with a shadowy occupation and lots of money. In New Orleans, Sarny finds her children and lives comfortably in Miss Laura's employ. She remarries, teaches black children to read, and sees her husband lynched. As the story ends, Sarny, a very rich woman, is living in Texas and waiting to die. Sarny's strong narrative voice is striking, as she remembers events in her own distinct way. It is as though readers are sitting at the feet of a real person, listening as her story spins out. Those unfamiliar with Nightjohn will not understand the numerous references to it, but this detracts little from the story. While Sarny suffers many terrible tragedies, her life after the war is probably far more comfortable and sheltered than the lives of the vast majority of former slaves. However, this is not meant to be a sweeping overview of history, but the highly individualized account of one woman's experiences. Just how much of the book is based on historical facts remains fuzzy, but Sarny is a wonderful, believable character. Her story makes absorbing reading. --Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC

School Library Journal

Two master storytellers--author and narrator--capture the singular personality of Sarny, a former slave who, at 94, recounts the turbulent events and dark times of her long life. Thigpen imbues the first-person narrative with Sarny's warmth, humor, passion and curiosity, making the listener respond as to a real memoir. For Sarny's benefactress, Miss Laura, Thigpen reads in a liquid voice of ambiguous accent and unchanging emotional intensity, effectively matching the carefully constructed identity Miss Laura presents to the world. Emotionally charged tragic events--such as the lynching of Sarny's husband--are not highly dramatized, but instead reflect the distance of time and recollection. Like Sarny herself, Thigpen recognizes the power of both words and, even more important, the thoughts behind them. D.M.L. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 99 - AudioFile