Customer Reviews

Nobody's Daughter

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

 

 

This book has a good lesson to it and it may not end on a happy note but that is okay.i feel you have to read the second book to realise the impact of how good of a book this is. so read both book before makeing a jugment about this book.

This is the best book ever! Please read it! I wish it was longer. I give it 5 stars! Read it!

After the recent death of her great-aunt, 11-year-old Emily Lathrop Hasbrouck discovers what it means to be truly alone. Her parents died when she was very young, and now she's being sent to the Austen Home for Orphaned Girls...after which, Emily is told, she can become a servant or a mill worker.

In the meantime, Emily faces a harsh orphanage environment, along with daily cruelty from her schoolmates, the daughters of the town's wealthiest Austen Home supporters. Luckily, she's befriended two fellow orphans, as well as the independent-minded town librarian, Miss Alice.

They encourage Emily to look for her long-lost baby sister, put up for adoption upon her birth and their mother's death. While Emily hasn't much to go on, not even her sister's name or location, she's determined not only to find her, but become part of her sister's new family.

But tragedy strikes, and Emily finds herself even lonelier and more helpless than before. Who will help her make a new life?

Pfeffer's portrayal of orphan life is pretty bleak -- too much so, some might say. Despite this being a children's book, Emily's story does not end neatly, with a happily-ever-after. Yet despite that, readers can feel a great deal of hope, that Emily will persevere and triumph no matter what happens to her.

Sometimes people make a living upon hopes, but what can they do when their hopes vanish into thin air? The experience of Emily did make me cry for times and touch my deepest soul. I reflected on myself realizing that I should cherish what I have now, with all my family and freinds who love me so much.

When 11-year-old Emily's guardian great-aunt died and Emily was shipped off to an orphanage, I expected this to be one of those stories that involves getting used to new rules, making new friends, getting into misadventures, etc.

Yes, these things did happen. But not in the way I expected it.

When Emily goes off to school for the first time, she discovers some girls in the town are not as nice as they appear to be. Downright nasty, in fact. All the adults side with them, though, because they are higher class.

Emily makes friends with the town librarian and some girls from the orphanage, but that is not enough. One afternoon, the bullies accidentally kill one of Emily's friends--and blame it on Emily.

Emily runs away to find her long-lost sister's family, so they might take them in, but instead, they drive her out and leave her by the side of the road!

Finally, the librarian adopts Emily, but we don't get to see anymore of her life, and there's no sequel.

This book may be realistic, but even the most realistic books end with a happier ending.

I got this book out thinking that it would be a story of learning what is really important in life - not who you are related to, but who you ARE.

I was greatly disappointed.

The book only served to illustrate the unfairness and cruelty of being born in the wrong place and time. The main character, Emily, falls from one tradgedy to another, with no end in sight by the end of the book. Had I read this when I was young (the target audience age) I would have been horribly upset and depressed. I would not suggest this book for ANY child.

This is a really depressing book and has a miserable ending. I don't think the main character doesn't need to be hated and punished so much. It seems it's a book you can learn from but I couldn't learn anything from it. Did the author want to show how cruel orphans were treated? Though it was well written, what was the author's point in this book?