Billy Creekmore: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Tracey Porter (Author)
Key Phrases: boy seer, advance crew, trick riders, Uncle Jim, Aunt Agnes, Holly Glen (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Ten-year-old Billy's story begins in a Dickensian orphanage, where being pawned off to a local glass factory is one of the few routes out. Billy looks forward to working, until his pal runs away after being disfigured at the factory and discloses its real conditions. Billy is saved from the same fate by the appearance of a long-lost uncle, who takes him to a West Virginia coal mining town; soon the lad is going down in the mines himself. Then a mine caves in, and Billy's involvement with the union forces him to leave town--and join the circus. All of this might have become simply a string of eye-raising events if it wasn't for Porter's shrewd choice to frame this as a picaresque journey, similar in style, and in some ways substance, to that taken by Huck Finn. Porter's writing is strong, and the story, told in Billy's steadfast yet child-true voice, makes the shocking history about the lives of children at the turn of the last century come alive for today's readers. But this is no polemic; Billy's personal relationships, and his sensitivity to both the living and the dead, make this child very real as he searches for home. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

Folks say I'm bound to be unlucky in life, for I was born at midnight on a Friday, the thirteenth of December, and Peggy says it's certain I can commune with spirits. But I ain't never seen any ghosts, not even my own mother, and wouldn't that be the ghost I'd see if I could?

So begins the tale of Billy Creekmore, a boy with mystifying powers and the glorious gift of storytelling. But what does life hold for someone growing up in the cruel clutches of the Guardian Angels Home for Boys, where Billy's gifts do more harm than good?

Escaping the orphanage seems an impossible feat, but when a stranger comes to claim Billy, he sets off on an extraordinary journey. With only a tin box that holds precious mementos of his beloved mother and mysterious father, Billy travels from the coal mines of West Virginia to the spectacular world of a traveling circus in search of his past, his future, and his own true self.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (June 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006077570X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060775704
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #818,895 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Billy's Good Heart, November 26, 2007

By	Kemie Nix "Founder, Children's Literature for... (Peachtree City, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In the early 1900's, "The Guardian Angels Home for Boys" is anything but. In this grim setting in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, ten-year-old Billy Creekmore exists - barely. The most that Billy can hope for is that Mr. Colder will take him away to work in the glassworks when he is twelve. When a friend reports back about the true conditions of the glassworks, that hope dies hard. Overhearing that Mr. Colder is going to employ him despite his tender age, Billy prepares to run away. Fortuitously, a long-lost relative turns up and whisks Billy away to his first true home.

Billy's misadventures are legion, taking him from the orphanage through the pre-union coal mines into a traveling circus. Along the way, Billy meets his biological father and tries mightily and ultimately unsuccessfully to believe in the goodness of this unsavory circus grifter. Misfortunes, however, do not harden Billy's good heart. As a protagonist, Billy is a sweet-natured charmer of animals and people -- including readers.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Similar to Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, June 29, 2007

By	C. O'brien (CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Billy Creekmore is a bullet dance through the swamps of real-life trauma. Tracey Porter keeps her readers on their toes, dodging the mishaps and unfortunate situations that befall the main character. Through the many twists and turns, this heartwarming, gripping adventure story, teaches us that life has a way of changing things before we have a chance to grow accustomed to them. Be prepared to read this novel in one sitting!

5.0 out of 5 stars Billy Creekmore, June 1, 2009

By	Patricia Haarhaus - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Billy Creekmore: A Novel (Paperback)

I loved this book. If you want a Huck Finn type book with an element of rescue and survivor, this is it. Once you begin reading, you will not put this one down for long. It is a good short read.
Thanks Tracey Porter for writing this. Keep writing more !

Pat Haarhaus