Hannah, Divided [Hardcover]

Adele Griffin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2004 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Thirteen-year-old Hannah Bennett loves her life in Chadds Ford. She goes to school, helps out with her family's dairy farm, jumps rope, and listens to favorite radio programs with her friends. Although she has difficulty reading, she does have one area of special talent: numbers. Her gift for math means that she does all of the invoicing for the farm, and helps out the younger students in their one-room schoolhouse. Best of all, Hannah enjoys a special relationship with Granddad McNaughton, who shares her passion for counting and calculating. He thinks of her gift as the key to a greater future elsewhere. 'You'll rust here,' he predicts. But Hannah can't imagine life anywhere else. Then Hannah is offered a rare opportunity for a country girl in 1934: to test for a scholarship to attend a private school in Philadelphia. Over her parents' objections, Hannah goes. But life in a big city is harder and lonelier than she'd ever imagined. Just when things seem at their worst, Hannah must somehow find the courage to decide what she values most. Acclaimed author Adele Griffin's first historical novel is a funny and poignant story of one girl's journey to her bravest self.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hannah, 13, loves math. In fact, she has "a gift for numbers." But it's 1934, and "math [is] more practical for boys," at least, that's what her teacher says. In her hometown of Chadds Ford, Pa., the most she can hope for is tutoring the younger students and invoicing all of her family's dairy accounts. Only her Granddad McNaughton recognizes the possibilities that Hannah's talent could offer her until Mrs. Theodora Ann Sweet waltzes in from Philadelphia to assess whether Hannah's school should be awarded money from the Wexler Foundation. Griffin (The Other Shepards) makes inventive use of a third-person narration to demonstrate Hannah's computer-like brain and quirky personality. Hannah sums up Mrs. Sweet as "seven suit buttons, eleven footsteps, and five syllables in her name. From bag to beret, Theodora Sweet seemed to be an odd-numbered, slant-sided sort of person"; and she meditates on her favorite number, 32, to try to clear her mind. She travels to Philadelphia to study and to try out for the Wexler Scholarship, but feels divided between math and home. The author remains true to Hannah's personality, laying out the ways in which her eccentricities inhibit her even as she wins over friends who see through to her strengths. Her friend Tru, for instance, offers soothing parting words to Hannah: "All it takes is one chum to make the world shrink to a comfortable size. Wouldn't you say?" Griffin leaves the conclusion realistically and satisfyingly ambiguous, but readers will feel confident that Hannah will come out on top. Ages 9-12.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Life in Chadds Ford, PA, in 1934 agrees with 13-year-old Hannah. Full of energy, she helps out as much as she can on the family farm and then goes off to school where she struggles with reading. Her crusty, but beloved, grandfather recognizes her exceptional ability with numbers and encourages her to think about the world beyond the confines of her village. When a Philadelphia philanthropist visits her school, she spots Hannah's special talents and invites her to come to the city to study for a scholarship examination. Hannah's family considers the invitation out of the question, but with Granddad's support, she is soon on her way. There, Hannah is lonely and school life is difficult, but she manages to cope with the help of Joe, another young and feisty scholarship hopeful. When her grandfather dies unexpectedly, she is tempted to forget her dream and return home, but Griffin has created a character too determined and stubborn to take the easy path. Despite her increasing anxiety, which results in almost uncontrollable obsessive counting and tapping, she perseveres. This portrait of a child clearly struggling with the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder is sensitive and convincing. Hannah's fierce will enables her to control many of the outward manifestations of her condition, but readers can feel her daily struggle to keep her urges in check. Joe Elway provides a scrappy, refreshing alternative to Hannah's intensity. The contrast of city with country life, of warm, if sometimes contentious, family life with the lonely life of a boarder in a stranger's house, of friendship with people who have known you since birth with the disdain of new classmates, makes this a novel well worth savoring.
Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover
• Publisher: Perfection Learning (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075692975X
• ISBN-13: 978-0756929756
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,123,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Look for All You Never Wanted (Random House) coming out in 2012.

Also Tighter is out this spring in paperback. With a really awesome new jacket.

And, if you're still interested, check out www.tighterthebook.com

You can find me on twitter, facebook, or on the web at www.adelegriffin.com.

Drop me a note and I promise to answer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good... but not great., September 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Hannah, Divided (Hardcover)

Hannah, Divided is a good book. The thing is, there is no real conflict, no real climax, and not a great conclusion. Hannah, Divided is more of a read-on-a-rainy saterday afternoon kind of book then a suspense-filled plot kind of book that keeps you hooked.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't go anywhere, December 3, 2004

By 

Jasmine Din "Book Lova" (Mercer, Wa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hannah, Divided (Paperback)

This book is o.k. I have to read it for the book club at school otherwise it would have been out the window. Once I started to read it, it was o.k. I agree with the reviewer before me, it didn't really go anywhere.