Jennie (Sunfire #31) [Paperback]

Jane Claypool Miner (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Point (June 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590420151
• ISBN-13: 978-0590420150
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #666,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jane Claypool Miner has written over 80 books for young adults. Some of them were written using the pen-name, Veronica Ladd. She enjoyed working as a junior and senior high school teacher before she became an author. In 1981 she was named Writer of the Year by the Society of Children's Book Writers. Her best-selling book, Dreams Can Come True, sold over a million copies and was translated into seven languages.

She has been a Religious Science minister for the last 25 years and now writes on self-help and spiritual topics as Jane Claypool. Dr. Jane was awarded both an honorary doctorate and the Raymond Charles Barker Writing Award by Religious Science International. Her best known spiritual books are Wise Women don't worry, Wise Women don't sing the blues and Science of Mind Skills.

Currently she writes a popular blog, www.janeclaypool.com, and is working on a series of short books on spiritual topics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book of survival, history, adventure, and romance!, February 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Jennie (Sunfire #31) (Paperback)

Jennie is visiting her aunt in Johnstown when the nearby South Fork Dam breaks and sends a wall of water heading toward the little town. Jennie must fight for her life and for the man she loves admist the raging flood. This is a great story of survival, history, adventure, and romance!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My first Sunfire book-it was wonderful!, April 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Jennie (Sunfire #31) (Paperback)

This was the first Sunfire book I have read and it was wonderful! It was about Jennie Brooks, a young, spirited girl who lives in 1889 Johnstown. Her Aunt, who is a telegraph operator in South Fork, is sick and needs someone to take her place. So they call Jennie up who knows morse code. When Jennie arrives at South Fork's train station her old friend Jim Hurst greets her. Jim obivously likes her but she isn't so kind to him. This got me really mad in the book. I felt like screaming, "Come on Jennie! Stop arguing with him, he's being really nice to you and you have to be really rude!" But most of the time I liked the character of Jennie Brooks. But a handsome reporter comes into the office. He calls Jennie a "boomer" girl and isn't that nice to Jennie but she's nicer to him than to Jim which kept getting me confused. Anyways Jim works for the fishing club for rich steel tycoons (Jennie is against the rich steel tycoons and thinks Jim is evil working for them). He is an engineer and works on the dam. But it's old and it may collapse at any time with all the rains. And that's just what happens. Jennie realizes that she is riding towards Johnstown on a wooden board on a huge wave. She sees houses torn apart that could be her friend's, aunt's, or even her own Mother's. Can Jennie survive this terrifying disaster that took so many lives? And if she does how can she live without anything afterwords? And can she pick between two men that love her (she doesn't really seem to love either through most of the book!)? I think to many people she knew survive, but at least some of them didn't. Though after all the comments I said, there are so many good points in the book! It's just great!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Sunfire - great history & characters, June 26, 2009

By 

Karla Bushway "7Rabbits" (South Strafford, VT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jennie (Sunfire #31) (Paperback)

This has been one of the better Sunfires, and the framing of it was very effective considering one of the heroine's suitors is a newspaper reporter. Each chapter begins with the day and time, giving the reader a sense of a real-time unfolding of the tragedy of the 1889 Johnstown Flood. That might seem pretty dull, but in the chapters leading up to the dam break, this sense of people going about their business and oblivious or dismissive or cautious of the rising waters and leaking dam did much to ramp up the tension.

Jennie's been one of the more believable heroines in the series. She's not like so many others who can ride and shoot as good as any man, or is the apple of her father's eye. She's poor, her family's poor, and they've had to work hard to keep their heads above water. She's also vocal about the whole issue of class, and Miner uses this to insert facts about labor struggles of the day.

The suitors, too, were some of the better ones I've encountered so far in the series. One is a driven newspaper reporter, perhaps a bit too glad of the opportunities the tragedy has offered him in terms of advancing his career, but it's a natural sentiment for him. The other suitor is a boy who is willing to use the opportunities given him by rich, callous men in order to achieve his own place in the world to presumably do good.

There were a few minor characters, most touching of all being Jennie's friend, Millie, who ends up having to go to desperate lengths in order to keep herself honest and unbroken when she suddenly finds herself alone. There's also a cameo by Clara Barton, which is also notable for its lack of fawning. Usually these historical people that show up in Sunfires always praise the heroine and otherwise go on about pretty/accomplished she is and otherwise make the heroine into more of a Mary Sue. Barton's behavior is entirely in keeping which who she is and the matter at hand.

This one is highly recommended.