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Booktalking Colorado Full Record:
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Title: |
A River Between Us |
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Author: |
Peck, Richard |
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Date Published: |
2003 |
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Genre: |
Historical Fiction |
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Grade Level: |
6 -78 |
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Booktalker: |
Bonnie Phinney |
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Booktalk:
They say that time is like a river. It only flows in one direction…and you can never go back. But that summer, when Howard Hutchings met his father’s kin for the first time, he did go back. His grandma Tilly took him back…a trip back in time that began with a visit to his father’s old homeplace in Grand Tower, Illinois, and ended with a revelation that would forever change Howard’s understanding of who he was.
The house his dad grew up in straddles a hill called the Devil’s Backbone. A road runs between the Backbone and the river now and it’s said that a ghost, or something very like it, has been seen crossing the road on dark nights. Grand Tower was nothing much more than a wide spot in the road – much different than the St Louis he was used to. It was more like a ghost town than a town– a ghost town with stories of an actual ghost!
Howard listened intently to the stories these old folks told – stories about his grandparents, Doc and Tilly, and his Aunt Delphine and Uncle Noah, stories about a time in 1861 when the Civil War broke out and they weren’t much older than he was now. Stories about war and grief and death, and also about an amazing time when Delphine first came to Grand Tower. He could feel the weight of history, and the sensation of a deep mystery.
A steamboat whistle splits the air one evening and with it, all is changed for fifteen year old Tilly Pruit. The Rob Roy, from New Orleans, docks at the landing, and two remarkable figures come ashore: a commanding and glamorous young lady, Delphine, and her darker, silent servant, Calinda. Who are these fascinating strangers? Why are they stopping in Grand Tower?
Tilly’s mother takes them in as boarders, and the whole world shifts for the Pruitts. The question must be asked. What kind of lifelong impact can one person have on another?
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