Customer Reviews

With A Hammer for My Heart

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

 

 

It all begins with fifteen year old Lawanda Ingles' aspirations to be the first in her family to go to college. Because money is scarce in the Kentucky mining town of Cardin, she decides to earn her tuition fees by selling magazines. Her sales quest takes her to the two broken down buses occupied by Amos Garland, a World War II veteran with demons in his closet and alcohol in his veins. The unlikely twosome grow close, until Garland realizes that the guileless young woman is beginning to soften the rock hard stone he calls a heart, and sends the bewildered girl away. He pens his alcolholic fears, in which his feelings for Lawanda become mixed up with his guilt over his own children, his wife, and a young soldier named Canaan. When the sheriff inadvertently gets his hands on the journal, he assumes that the ramblings imply an illicit relationship between the disagreeable old drunk and the affectionate teen which brings the story to its horrifying climax. I would recommend this engaging tale to older adolescents, as the vivid language and subject matter is quite intense. Ms. Lyons draws a revealing and touching portrait of the life and ambitions of a free-spirited teen who is unwilling to accept that life must progress as it always has, and that people cannot change.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sometimes I read books just for the plot, sometimes for the characters, and occasionally for the writing itself. I enjoyed all three aspects of this book.

Highly recommended.

With a Hammer for my Heart was one of the greatest novels I've ever read.It was passionate,poetic & just a really lovely book.I gave it five stars because it was so greatly & beautifully written. George Ella Lyon is a literary genius. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel & hated to see it end.I would absolutely recommend this novel to anyone looking for a really great read.The plot is fantastic & I just loved the story.

Reviewed by Michele Heather Pollock

Some folks say there are only a handful of stories in the world that get retold again and again in different guises. If that is so, then surely the coming-of-age story would be one of the most frequent: child meets trouble of some sort; child deals with the trouble and, in the process, grows up. What can make these stories interesting, what can keep us reading them again and again, is the nature and character of the child, and the nature and character of the trouble he or she runs into.

In With a Hammer for My Heart, that child is Lawanda, fifteen years old, growing up in a poor community in Kentucky. She wants to go to college, so she gets a job selling magazines. Her sales lead her up "the hill" to where Garland, an old WWII veteran lives in two old school buses. Garland is ostracized by the community because he drinks too much, and because he'd driven away his wife and kids. But Lawanda finds him and his bus, filled with books and old maps, interesting, and she finds herself befriending the old man.

The trouble comes in when the local community learns about Lawanda and Garland's friendship, which they neither understand nor want to tolerate. A rumor leads to an arrest, and Lawanda finds herself on a bus, headed across the state alone, looking for the one person she thinks can help her sort out the situation.

This is Lyon's first novel, though she has written more than 30 books for children and adults. It is a lovely book, full of great characters who each, while acting in what they believe is the best interest of Lawanda, alternately help and thwart her efforts to make the world right again. The cover is gorgeous, and while the typeface used in this paperback edition is distracting and odd, the story is capable of rising above that distraction to discuss ideas of hurt and healing, and the responsibilities we all have to the people we know and love.

Armchair Interviews says: Strong first novel from an established children's author.

If you like a good story told straight from the characters' mouths, then you will enjoy this book. As a Kentuckian, I enjoy stories with a decisively Appalachian flavor, and in With A Hammer For My Heart, Ms. George Ella Lyon (yes, the author is a SHE) weaves a deceivingly simple, yet powerful, story about family, friendship, and forgiveness. Told through the voices of its many characters, the story centers around the friendship between a young girl, LaWanda, and a war-ravaged veteran, Amos Garland. Determined to make her way to college, LaWanda charges into Garland's life selling magazines. Although he does not welcome company, Garland finds that he has become (somewhat unwillingly) a friend to LaWanda. However, through a series of tragic events, LaWanda's loyalty to her family and Garland are tested. Yet, in the end, LaWanda's strength and courage brings about powerful changes in the people around her. Ms. Lyon's first attempt at adult fiction is a success and I look forward to reading more of her adult work. She is truly one of Kentucky's treasures!

A friend gave me this book to read. Since Lyon is known as a children's author, I wasn't that eager. But when I opened it, I was hooked! I have since recommended it to everyone I know. It's a story of love, anger, and reconciliation. And more, it's a fable about faith; faith in the capacity of humans to forgive and go on. The story is written from the point of view of each of the main characters-a device that makes the reader feel as if you are sitting at the table listening to each person tell his/her version of the story. That the author is able to create five distinct voice is a credit to her ability. I won't go into much about the story except to say that Mawmaw is the most interesting character with her believe in God the Mother, Daughter, and Holy Ghost. I read a great deal and this book has stayed with me more than any in recent times.

This book is about a little girl named Lawanda. She starts out trying to sell magazines and earn money for college. It's by selling these magazines that she meets Garland. Garland is an older man who lives in a bus, he is generally known as the town's hermit. He chases all strangers away until Lawanda comes along. As Garland and Lawanda get to know each other better, they each encounter conflicts that will forever change their existence. I found this book to be quality reading, but I really couldn't get into the characters. They had such fictional personalities, that it was hard to identify with some of their feelings. The descriptions are exceptional, and I think that's why the book is a Young Adult Book Award Nominee. Somehow I just don't think that Mr. Lyon did his best though. Perhaps another book would help him to create realistic characters.