Billy Creekmore: A Novel [Paperback]

Tracey Porter (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

He is a motherless child,
a coal miner,
a circus star,
a con artist,
a seer,
a hero,
and a survivor.

This is the tale of Billy Creekmore, a young boy with mystifying powers and the gift of storytelling. But his life in the Guardian Angels Orphanage is cruel and bleak, and when a stranger comes to claim Billy, he sets off on an extraordinary journey. From the coal mines of West Virginia to the world of a traveling circus, he searches for the secrets of his past, his future, and his own true self.

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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Tracey Porter is the author of Treasures in the Dust and A Dance of Sisters. Her most recent novel, Billy Creekmore, was named to Oprah.com's Kids' Reading List, compiled by the American Library Association. For the past twenty years she has taught middle school at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; Reprint edition (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060775726
• ISBN-13: 978-0060775728
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 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)   

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

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 Billy Creekmore, June 1, 2009

By 

Patricia Haarhaus "Pat (Poland) Haarhaus" (Conroe, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

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

6 of 8 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)   

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

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!