Customer Reviews

A Heart Divided

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4 star:		(3)
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Jeff Gottesfeld and Cherie Bennett have written a novel in which any student, parent, or teacher can find truths about life. As an educator, I am constantly given recommendations for good books to read; this book is one of my favorites. It deals with issues that fit not only adolescent concerns, but also with problems facing society in general: tolerance for others' differences, compassion for others' suffering, and adjustment to new situations. Best of all is the awakening of the main character, Kate, to the realization of her goals. She discovers that opening her heart and mind to life's obstacles takes her to places she had previously only dreamed of reaching. This book is one that teens and adults will read cover-to-cover!

"A Heart Divided" is by far the best book I've read all year. With a rare combination of a loveable protagonist, gripping story, enthralling and satisfying young romance and hard-hitting social and moral lessons to be learned, I give this book the highest recommendation possible. I read it all in one sitting, barely even stopping to eat, because it's such a page-turner! The love story is soooo perfect and will melt your heart, while the social issues presented in the book will really make you think. I had "A Heart Divided" on my mind well after finishing the book. If there's one book you have to read this year, it's this one.

This is by far the best book I've read in years for young people about the experience of living in the South today. Whether the reader is white or black, conservative or liberal, rich or poor, in a big city or in a small town is much that can be gained from A Heart Divided. The best thing about the book is that the authors have written a marvelous story about a teen girl and wrapped it around a hot political issue. Even though the issue is hot, they have managed to present all points of view with fairness and with dignity. No matter what you think about the Confederate Flag and whether it should be flown today, you will feel that your point of view is represented and not smirked at. Meanwhile, Kate Pride emerges as one of the most interesting teen girls I've read about in years. She's a regular girl from a regular family, trying to figure out what it all means. This is a wonderful read for anyone age twelve and up.

Having been born and raised in the South, this book really seemed to hit home for me. It acurately portrays so many of the mixed emotions of many southerners. There is a fine line that we walk between being proud of our southern heritage and our ancestors who sacraficed so much during the Civil War without being labeled a racist. This book should serve as a good read and a forum for open debate amoung teens on this issue.

When a liberal girl from the north moves to a small town in the south, she falls in love with a wealthy southern boy and becomes embroiled in a Confederate flag controversy at her school. I read this amazing novel when the daughter of a friend gushed about it to me, and it truly is an amazing book. The ease of the read could fool a reader into thinking that the work is less weighty than it actually is. The authors have managed to tackle the sensitive and incendiary issue of the Confederate flag in a fresh and thought-provoking way. That they teen characters, black and white, are actually able to come up with a solution for their school, and that the solution is one that could actually be modeled in real life, is nothing short of genius. The novel also contains a play based on both real and fictitious interviews about the Confederate flag in the style of Anna Devere Smith, and the play is included in the back of the novel (and I noticed it's available for classroom use! -- as a former teacher this delights me!). Girls might initially read this for the romance, but the life lessons will linger with them long after the love plot fades. A must read for all Americans, of all ages.

A Heart Divided is a deceptively readable story about a teen girl playwright from New York City who moves to Tennessee, falls into a passionate teen love affair with a guy from the South, and gets embroiled in a controversy over the Confederate battle flag. So does her boyfriend, who comes from a family and a family history so different from the girl as to be practically from another world. This is the kind of book where you don't even realize the pages flying by as you read it, so accessible is the language and likeable is the girl narrator. The great love story gives it a forward thrust that rockets you right along as you read it. But make no mistake, A Heart Divided is no piece of teen fluff. These are real teens and real families dealing with some of the more heartbreaking parts of our history -- the Civil War, slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement. Teens will come away from this well-balanced novel with a far greater understanding of these difficult issues than when they started. And they'll have an excellent time time getting there, too. This should be an excellent book for librarians to recommend to teen readers of all academic levels. The easy style should make it good for kids who don't normally like to read, but the powerful political and romantic currents should sweep up even the most sophisticated teen reader.

Cherie Bennett (along with her co-author husband) is known for her popular teen fiction. As in her previous book, "Life in the Fat Lane", this work tackles a difficult and controversial subject: should the Confederate Flag continue to be Redford High School's symbol? New Jersey high school junior Kate and her family move to small town Redford, Tennessee and Kate is immediately embroiled in a campaign that seeks to eliminate the use of the Confederate Flag at the high school. Stock characters abound, and this is ultimately a light--but not fluffy--piece of popular fiction. BUT, consider that for teens today, the civil rights movement is ancient history. The author presents a balanced look at an emotional and historical symbol and places it in a context that will provoke understanding, thought and discussion among teens. Very timely, considering recent events surrounding the current use of the Confederate Flag in certain southern states.

In A Heart Divided, by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld, Kate Pride tells the story of her experiences in Redford, Tennessee as a 16-year-old playwright from New Jersey. She shares how she met Jack Redford and eventually wrote a play with the hopes of reuniting the heart of the Redford community - divided over the meaning of the Confederate flag. She discovers who she really is and that "Purpose is: Who you touch. How you change the world. The good you leave behind."
When Kate meets Jack, her life changes. Jack is 17 and wants to become an actor, but finds it challenging to stand up to his mom who wants him to continue the Redford family tradition of attending military school. Kate's new friend Nikki Roberts is organizing a vote to change the Redford Rebels high school football team name and Confederate flag mascot. To much of the community, including Jack, the flag simply represents family history - what their fathers died for. Many others believe it represents racism. When Kate's own family becomes directly involved in the conflict, Kate brings together the feelings of various members of the community (including her own) in her first serious play, performed by Jack and Nikki. Kate's performance piece can be found at the end of the book and includes excerpts from real interviews conducted by Bennett and Gottesfeld.
This book is written with a realistic, sometimes romantic, sometimes funny style that teen girls can relate to. You feel like you're really in the little Southern town of Redford, Tennessee. The performance piece at the end is the true reward for reading the book, a beautifully written process of discovery. I hope you will read this book and find your heart touched as deeply as mine was.

Sixteen-year-old Kate Pride is outraged when her parents inform her that they are moving. Not only moving a few miles away, but hundreds of thousands of miles away, from their beloved hometown of New Jersey, to Redford, Tennessee. Kate is horrified at the thought of leaving her closest friends behind, as well as giving up the spot that she earned in a prestigious playwriting workshop. In Redford, racial tensions quickly arise, as Kate admits that she is a very northern teenager, in a very southern town. These differences prompt her to write a play. Her play is about the town's choices to fly the Confederate flag, and the opposition that the movement causes. However, when Jack Redford steps into the picture, a Romeo-and-Juliet type love affair begins. Suddenly Jack is trying to explain to his Mother why he doesn't want to attend the Citadel, even though it is a family tradition, and Kate joins various high school students in the attempt to get the school team's name changed to something other than the Rebels, and to get the town to stop flying their Confederate flag.

The voice of Kate Pride is wise beyond her 16-years. She is intelligent and confident, determined and strong. Kate is a role model for teenage girls the world over, as she speaks to readers, rathern than down to them. Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld have created an inspirational and endearing novel that will stay with the reader for years, and, eventually go down in literary history. For once, two authors of the young adult genre have decided to give their lead character a plot, and voice of importance. A HEART DIVIDED will leave a lasting impression. Don't miss it!

Erika Sorocco

By the time I finished reading RAZZLE three summers ago, the intensity of my hatred toward Kenyon Baker's manipulative and clueless mom compelled me to pass a perfectly beautiful day at the beach totally obsessing about what she had done to him and was actually the catalyst for my modest attempt at writing a contemporary YA novel.

Halfway through A HEART DIVIDED, those memories of hating Mrs. Baker were coming back to me full blast, and for that I nominate Jackson Redford's mom for 2004's Insidious Mother of the Year.

A HEART DIVIDED is the story of Kate Pride, a Jersey Girl and aspiring playwright. Thanks to her father's getting his dream job, Kate is forced to leave her friends and her Manhattan-based Young Playwrights Showcase program in order to move with her family to the small town of Redford, Tennessee. Arriving just in time for her junior year of high school, Kate is plopped down--Northern liberal sensibilities and all--into the midst of a townwide controversy concerning her school and the Confederate battle flag. And upon first meeting him--under a library desk--Kate immediately falls head over heels for the aforementioned Jackson (Jack) Redford. Jack--enlightened, gorgeous, and a drama aficionado--turns out to be the last surviving male descendent of both the town's slaveholding namesake and a long line of Redford men who'd proudly served in the military.

You can imagine where Jackson's Southern-born and bred mother fits into this mix.

Whether it's Kate's attempt at creating a relationship with Jack, her stepping into the middle of the flag debate, or her struggle to compose a meaningful play about the deepening controversy, she becomes immersed in the baggage of a community where so many people--young and old--are descended from either Confederate soldiers or slaves, and also from recent generations whose bitter division during the Civil Rights Movement has left Redford with some even less healed wounds.

" 'Back in those days, Lucas Roberts was a student at Fisk. He and nine other students walked right through the front door of Jimmy Mack's. The boys wore jackets and ties. The girls wore lovely dresses. They took seats at two tables and waited. All the white people were served. But those ten young people were ignored. So they sat there all day, in silence.'
"I stopped her, checked my tape to be sure it was recording properly, and then restarted it. 'Go on, please,' I urged her. 'What happened?'
" 'Well, when Jimmy Mack III closed at the end of the day, these young students came outside to find white folks lined up on the sidewalk cursing them and waving the Confederate battle flag.
"My hand flew to my mouth. 'That's disgusting.'
" 'Yes. It is. But in the long run, the black students won.'

It was only earlier this month that I read an Associated Press article about a town in Virginia whose school board's policy preventing children from wearing clothes to school depicting the Confederate flag had resulted in suspensions, statewide protests, and livid parents demanding that their children be given the right to celebrate their ancestry.

" 'I'm ashamed that my ancestors owned slaves. But that doesn't mean I'm not still proud of them, because I am. They were honorable men, for a different time. And they put love of country ahead of whatever they wanted for themselves. Can you understand that? Can you?' "

The authors certainly made the most of their decade of living in Nashville to create a spectrum of complex characters and believable dialogue. They have now adapted this story for the stage, and I'd sure love to have the opportunity to see one of the productions that is already scheduled.

A HEART DIVIDED is a provocative and satisfying book that will inspire passionate debate--both above and below the Mason-Dixon line--about racial and regional issues and the attendant pain that continues to remain a part of our nation's character.
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