From Publishers Weekly
As in her debut novel, Night Flying, Murphy connects earth and sky in a novel laced with lyricism and magic. On an August evening during the Perseid meteor showers, an infant bursts through the roof of Felix McGuillicuddy and Nettie Mae McClean's chicken coop. Narrator Harmony, 14, recounts the incident of her unusual arrival, and her magnetic voice intertwines realism with a sense of possibility: "Nettie Mae has had Rhode Island Reds and Black Austrolorps in that coop, but she'd never had a star before." Their home in the Hamlin Mountains, in the northeast corner of Tennessee, seems ringed with a benevolent supernatural quality: Nettie Mae, whose mother was Cherokee, is the healer on the mountain, and the Old People, a row of white pines ("ten feet wide and a hundred feet tall") sacred to the tribe, have been left in Nettie Mae's care. When the Great Northern Lumber Company threatens to cut down the Old People, Harmony discovers she possesses magical powers that she can only attribute to her heavenly birthright, and they come in handy in an eclectic array of situations. Murphy offers readers a palpable sense of place so that readers can almost feel the Old People sway in the breeze or hear the cry of a coyote pup caught in a trap; with just a few scenes, she creates a supporting cast of full-blooded, eccentric mountain people-even the most crotchety of the bunch will earn readers' sympathy. Ages 12-up.
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 Up-Harmony lives with an older couple in the mountains of Tennessee. She was found in a chicken coop by Felix McGuillicuddy, who swears that she arrived in a falling star, and has been raised by him and his wife. She has always felt very connected to the energy of the world, trees, and stars, and now she can move things using only her mind. Sometimes she can even predict the future of those around her. The teen simply wants to be normal so she tries to hide her growing powers. Conflicts heat up as a logging company decides to cut down the nearby ancient trees that Nettie Mae McGuillicuddy has sworn to protect and as Harmony begins to fall for her best friend's cousin Caleb. This touching story combines the trials and tribulations of growing up with the problems of having extrasensory perception. Harmony and her family are lovable and believable characters. Through their relationships, readers see the importance of a love of the land and of nature, of neighborliness and caring, and of the interconnections among people. A wonderful story of a teen who is coming to terms with being different and learning to accept her gift.
Saleena L. Davidson, South Brunswick Public Library, Monmouth Junction, NJCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
