All the Way Home [Hardcover]

Patricia Reilly Giff (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

It’s August 1941, and Brick and Mariel both love the Brooklyn Dodgers. Brick listens to their games on the radio in Windy Hill, in upstate New York, where his family has an apple orchard; Mariel, once a polio patient in the hospital in Windy Hill, lives in Brooklyn near the Dodgers’ home, Ebbets Field. She was adopted by Loretta, a nurse at the hospital, and has never known what happened to her own mother. Someday, somehow, she plans to return to Windy Hill and find out. When a fire destroys their orchard, Brick’s parents must leave the farm to find work. They send him to live in Brooklyn with their friend Loretta, even though Brick knows that their elderly neighbors need his help to pick what’s left of the apples. The only good thing about Brooklyn is seeing the Dodgers play–that, and his friendship with Mariel. Maybe, together, they’ll find a way to return to Windy Hill, save the harvest, and learn the truth about Mariel’s past.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Though worlds apart, city girl Mariel and Brick, a farmer's son from upstate New York, have a lot in common. They're both strong-willed, fiercely independent, and fervent Brooklyn Dodgers fans. Their divergent paths merge when Brick's family's orchard is destroyed by fire, and his parents send him to stay with Mariel and her adoptive mother in 1941 Brooklyn. Though excited by the chance to see his beloved baseball team play in person, Brick can think of little else but getting back to Windy Hill and saving what's left of the apple trees. Unexpected help comes in the form of Mariel, whose big heart cannot always overcome the weakness of her polio-stricken legs. Determined to help Brick and discover the identity of her birth mother, Mariel finds a way to get them both to Windy Hill--where Brick's trees and the hospital where Mariel was born await--one shaky step at a time. Author of the much lauded Lily's Crossing, Patricia Reilly Giff has written another lovely work of historical fiction that perfectly evokes a long-past time and place. Here, we can't help but smell Brick's apples and hear the cheers of hopeful Dodgers fans in Ebbets Field. A wonderful story of friendship and personal triumph for the preteen set. (Ages 9 to 12) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

Newbery Honor novelist Giff (Lily's Crossing) brings together two appealing young characters in this story of friendship, family and finding where one belongs. When fire destroys the apple crop on his family's upstate New York farm in 1941, Brick's parents must find work elsewhere and send their son to live temporarily in Brooklyn with Loretta, an old friend. Loretta, a nurse, years before adopted a young polio victim, Mariel, whom she had cared for in a hospital located near Brick's family's farm. Though she loves Loretta, the girl is determined to find her birth mother, of whom she has faint memories. Mariel is drawn to the likable Brick, yet initially her embarrassment at her polio-scarred legs (which, in her mind, "curved like the pretzels in Jordan's candy store") prevents her from talking to him. But when he shares his resolve to return home to help a beloved elderly neighbor harvest his apple crop, Mariel encourages him to make the journey. Impulsively, she decides to accompany him and to visit the hospital where she was taken when stricken with polio, hoping to find clues to her mother's identity. The pieces of the plot snap together a bit too easily and snugly as Giff solves each youngster's dilemma. More credible is the emotion that runs high and affectingly throughout the narrative, as well as the many period details. Ages 8-12.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 169 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; F edition (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385322097
• ISBN-13: 978-0385322096
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,806,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay....., August 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: All the Way Home (Hardcover)

This book was alright, but it was kind of boring....I expected alot more after reading Lily's Crossing, which I really liked alot. It was one of those books that you count how many pages you have left till it's over.....

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All the Way Home, November 18, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: All the Way Home (Paperback)

The book called All the Way Home by Patricia Reilly Giff is a very good book. It's about a boy named Brick. He and his family used to live in a small house on an apple orchard but when a fire destroys it his parents have to find work. And Brick has to go live with his parent's friend Loretta. Loretta lives in Brooklyn with her adopted daughter Muriel.
Muriel once had polio at a hospital in Windy Hill were Brick used to live. Loretta was a nurse at the hospital that Muriel went to and she adopted her because her mother never came back for her. So this story is about Muriel trying to find her mother and Brick trying to get back to Windy Hill to save the apple harvest.
I liked this book and I would recommend this book because it is very exciting. This book gets right to the point and you never want to put it down. I liked how it had two stories weaved together and how Brick and Muriel both had some kind of similarities with in each other. I thought the book All the Way Home was a very good book for all ages.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars All the Way Home, May 18, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: All the Way Home (Hardcover)

All the way Home By: Patricia Reilly Giff A Dell Yearling Book

Mariel and her mother were great friends. All the way Home took place in the 1940's. Mariel was diagnosed with polio disease, but at the time there were no treatments. Mariel was soon adopted by a nurse named Loretta from the hospital because her mother didn't want to see her daughter suffer with having polio and have to take care of her on her own. She thought it would be very difficult to deal with and it would be easier to have a nurse who knows all about polio take care of her. So she asked the nurse to adopt Mariel and take care of her until she is old enough to be by herself. Then there is Brick who is Mariel's best friend. He lives in a different part of New York than Mariel. He lives in an area away fom the city. Mariel used to live there until she got adopted and moved closer to the city. Brick is going through some family struggles also. Bricks family has an apple orchard to make money. Then on a stormy day a lightning bult struck the trees and set them all on fire. So together Mariel and Brick figure out their problems.

The two main characters are Mariel and Brick. Mariel as I said before was diagnosed with polio. The author did not give any descriptions of the characters that were very clear at all, at least not clear enough to make a picture of the characters in your head. I can picture her as being a small, petite girl who is very smart though. I can also picture Brick being a small, skinny, dark haired person. Then there is Brick. Brick is very out going just as Mariel is. Both of them are very brave also. Brick is dealing with family problems like trying to help his family make money to pay for their house and put the food on the table. Mariel and Brick aren't only best friends they are also huge Dodgers fans. In case you are not aware, the Dodgers are a baseball team. The two friends are hoping that the Dodgers will win the pennant in the year that the book takes place, but not many people believe that the Dodgers can do it.

This book had an okay plot to it but I really disliked the style of writing the author used. There would be two chapters on Mariel and then two chapters on Brick and so on. That really got me confused. I had to take little sticky notes and write what happened in each chapter on them because I would get so confused. It was really hard for me to concentrate on the story too because the author would go off subject so much and then say "so any ways..." all the time and that just about drove me insane. Some adjectives I would use to describe this book are boring, slow, irritating and very off topic. The genre of All the way Home is realistic fiction. The author is not very good at describing the different characters and her chapters are very confusing, but if you are interested in this book go right ahead and give it a try. Personally I think it would be a waste of time. I would not recommend this book to anyone.