Customer Reviews

The Education of Mary: A Little Miss of Color, 1832

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Canterbury, Connecticut 1832-
Thirteen-year old Mary Harris is growing up in a time period of the beginnings of the underground railroad and the start of the friction between blacks and whites before the Civil War. When Mary's sister, Sarah, becomes the first African-American girl to be admitted to an exclusive Canterbury female seminary, controversy arrises which provokes Miss Carandall, the head of the seminary,to turn the Paine Mansion into an all female colored school. As the situation escalates and gains national publicity, Mary is fighting for a cause she beleives to be true. The turmoil on the outside of the seminary is nothing compared to the tension and dividing that is taking place within. Based on the true story of the first school for black girls in Connecticut, if you like good, raw historical fiction you'll love this book! Although somewhat slow in parts Ann Rinaldi improvises, depicting this brief period of history-the personalities, and the passion behind causes. I gave this book four stars because the topic was extremely interesting and entertaining, but not like some of Rinaldi's other edge-of-your- seat, page-turning, thrillers. The book was still incredibly well-written and thought provoking.

This book is deep.I don't know any other way to describe it. I almost cried while I was reading it, I wanted to scream with, anger, and most of all I felt sorry for Mary, to have a father that doesn't believe in controversy, and to be surronded people who don't understand her. Her father I think was just uhhhh, he was as blind as a mouse. And really to have your own father believe a rumor against his own daughters word! I agree with Mary I to would live with Charles and Mariah, then work at the mills to get money. Now Julia and Mary have experience the same pain but I thinkMary's was more excruciating, because to have you own father issuing the pain. I liked this book, and like I said it was deep.

I thought that this book was an excellent novel. First, I love Ann Rinaldi's books so i guess i would need to say that i am a bit partial to her work. Secondly, all of Ann Rinaldi's work has been excellent so when i say that she displays the historical background well and in an enthralling way that is true of not only this but all her novels. One bit of advice...never read the back author's note first! happy reading!

Ann Rinaldi is at her best when she writes about characters from the "middling" sort. Characters who are privy to history from the sidelines. In the novel, Mary is a mixed raced girl in who is a student at one of the first schools for girls of color in Connecticut. I once read that history is suppose to be somewhat strange to present day readers. It's a world who's ideas and beliefs have long since been overruled as outdated and at times draconian. As such, Rinaldi has skillfully recreated the world of 1832. She doesn't attempt to judge or edit the thoughts and actions of the people of that time period but merely presents them as they were. The girls at the school, Miss Crandall, Quakers, the towns people, all are portrayed as people and not politically correct pawns. Also themes of the antebellum period are represented: religion, women's rights, slavery, labor rights etc. Great book.

"Sometimes good things are done for the wrong reasons. Don't ever look into a person's reasons or you'll always be disappointed. Just look at the good accomplished". Page 143

I really enjoyed this book, and think it is one of Rinaldi's finest.

it was an excellent example of historical fiction