Customer Reviews

Nory Ryan's Song

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Twelve-year-old Nory Ryan and her family have always lived a meager life in the Irish countryside, but they have always managed to make ends meet. But now it's 1845, and a terrible blight is attacking the potato crops, the main source of food for the Irish peasants. And not only are the in danger of starvation, but their English landlord is threatening to turn them off the land that should be theirs if they don't pay the rent soon. But Nory is brave and resourceful, and she comes up with ways to stretch their food, pay the rent, and keep herself and her family and friends alive. But as time goes by, things get harder. Nory dreams of a better live. Can she find what it take to survive until the day she can make her dreams come true? This was a beautifully written historical novel about an ordinary girl's immense courage and resourcefullness during a tragic and difficult time in history. Highly reccomended to historical fiction fans.

Recently, I read the novel, Nory Ryan's Song, by Patricia Reilly Giff. Personally, I rated this book 5 stars because it showed how life really was for some people. She shows how life was during the depression in Ireland. She also uses impecable description. She shows the setting and charactors in a clear and well detailed way. The main charactor in the book was easy to relate to. Even I could relate to her. Nory is Irish, I am Irish. Nory loves potatoes, I LOVE potatoes. I would recommend this to 13+ and people who like realistic fiction. This book has a little bit of Gaelic in it so it may be difficult for younger children. The story and plot are believable and it's about something that happened in real life with fictional charactors. This book is enjoyable and I would recommend this book and author in the future!

Nory Ryan's Song portrays the near hopelessness faced by those who suffered through the potato blight of the mid-1800s in Ireland. Starvation and desperation are vividly described through the perspective of twelve-year-old Nory as she struggles to survive and provide for her loved ones. The music within her allows her to connect with a woman whom she initially fears, but who is able to provide Nory with sustenance and ultimately with a gift of knowledge that will allow her to heal others. The author's use of language is notable: Giff creates an "Irish lilt" in her text that provides a strong sense of place and authenticity to this powerful and moving story.

It seems uniquely challenging. The idea of making a readable children's book out of something so bleak and depressing as the Irish Potato Famine. Yet as an author, Giff has never shied away from difficult subjects. Whether you're following the trials of a 1870 German immigrant to Brooklyn in "The House of Tailors", or a 1940's Hungarian escapee in "Lily's Crossing", Giff has become one of those go-to historical fiction writers. With an emphasis on immigration, emigration, and forced transplantation, her books strain to find a balance between absolute historical accuracy and something your ten-year-old would actually (willingly) pick up on their own. Personally, when I was ten years of age I wouldn't have picked up "Nory Ryan's Song" for all the gold in King Solomon's mines. For those children that have strong stomachs and even stronger nerves, however, the book is a distinctly well-written explanation of why many of us in America sport Irish-American heritage.

Yeah, Nory's got a pretty nice life. True, her mother's dead and her father's away at sea to fish and pay the family's bills. Still, she has her two older sisters, her grandfather, her little brother Patch, and her best friend Sean to keep her company. And then one day she detects an odd smell in the air.... And even odder screams of panic from over the hills. The smell, as it turns out, is that of potatoes dying of a particularly nasty blight. The screams are the people who realize that death is staring them in the face. Before she knows it, Nory's potato patch is infested as well and the family is left with zero food to get by on. The English lord, Cunningham, who owns the land isn't about to show any mercy to his Irish tenants, and people begin to grow more and more desperate as he takes their lifestock for rent. In the end, Nory must decide what's most important to her as she takes amazing risks to find a way to keep the people she loves alive.

In writing this tale, Giff fast-forwards the tragedy a bit more than is strictly necessary. For example, the residents of Nory's village discover the potato blight one day and exactly two days later literally everybody's starving. Surely they weren't eating the underripe potatoes until now. It seems an odd way to write the book. Of course there's no faulting the language. Giff knows how to write something gripping and more than a little compelling. She parallels Nory's desperation with the hope that her father will, soon, return with money for food. Still, there are some moments in the book where it gets so downright depressing that it's all the reader can do to keep slogging on. For some kids, of course, this is a bonus. And certainly it would have been a far greater crime if Giff had played off the entire tragedy in a happy-go-lightly manner. All I'm saying is that this book, rather than being required reading for EVERY child in a certain grade, should only be given to kids who already enjoy historical fiction, tragedy, and a strong female narrator.

It's difficult to fault this novel. Giff knows from whence she writes and nobody in her field does a better job of describing degradation. No one. I don't see this book as the most pleasurable reading out there, but it's undoubtedly one of the best written. For the full effects of the Irish Potato Famine, there is nowhere else to turn.

I am a 13 year old who does not enjoy reading very much and would rather be watching MTV instead.But when I first picked up this book I could not put it down I read it in about 2 days. Patricia Reilly Giff is my new favorite author!It is about a girl and her family during the potato famine in Irealand. As she is trying to save her self by eating anything she can find from bird eggs to grass she is also struggling to save her friends and family.Does she come through?You will have to find out! : )I did and I loved it!

In famine-infested Ireland, Nory Ryan is left to fend for her family in ways she does not even understand. How can she overcome fears of the past and uncertainties of the present in order to reunite her family and loved ones in a new country? The touching story of a very dedicated young girl will touch and inspire. Another masterpiece by a captivating author!

Nory is a typical twelve-year-old girl living in Ireland in the mid-1800s. Her mother died giving birth to her little brother, so she and her two older sisters and grandfather take care of each other while her father leaves on long fishing trips to earn their rent money. The English lord who owns their land, though, would rather they couldn't pay their rent. Then he would be free to destroy their home and use that land for his sheep to graze.

Things have gone reasonably well for awhile, though, and Nory's family has been able to pay their rent and live mostly off of the potatoes that are planted in their yard. Nory's oldest sister is saving up money to marry a neighbor. Then one of their other neighbors falls too far behind on rent and can't stop the lord from destroying her home. Nory's sister is worried, and she and her fiance use their money to take a ship to the United States, to try to find a better life there.

After Nory's sister leaves, things get even worse. Her father is taking much longer to return from fishing than he usually does, and the lord has come to their home to warn them about not paying their rent. Then all of the potatoes in their yard and the yards of their neighbors turn black and give off a horrible smell. There is no way they can be eaten, but the people have no other food. Will Nory and her family be able to survive?

I liked the history behind this book. It was interesting to read what life was like in Ireland, and to see what people may have been thinking when the potato famine hit. I liked the character of Anna. She was strong and sympathetic although she must have been suffering herself.

I didn't like the idea that everyone thought life in America would be so much better than life in Ireland. I know my history, and know that things weren't much better for the Irish immigrants in America.

"Nory Ryan's Song" is a wonderful book - there's no other way to put it! I've never read a book about the Great Hunger and I am now very interested in this topic, as result of this novel. Patricia Reilly Giff gave the perfect amount of detail and emotion to conjure up pictures in one's mind. I was able to feel everyone's pain and hunger. This should also be required reading in school. I just wish Giff put in an Epilogue, just for some closure. You can tell this story meant a lot to the author, by her note at the end of the story. I recommend!

Nory Ryan's Song is about a girl who lives on the west coast of Ireland in Maidin Bay with her family in 1845. It's very beautiful there. But life there isn't easy. Nory's family plants potatoes there for a living. Nory's dad sailed away on a boat to go fishing to earn rent money for Lord Cunningham. The English lord forced the Irish to leave their land, so he can tear down their cottages and clear fields for sheep. Many people left Maidin Bay, and never returned. Nory's sister Maggie set off for Brooklyn. Nory dreams where all the Ryan's would live together as a family. A blight attacks the potatoes, which means everybody will go into starvation. And Nory's dad doesn't return when he usually does. Nory has to use courage and ingenuity to find food, find hope, and a way for her family to survive.

Most students know that the Irish potato famine killed millions of people, but they may not understand any more than that. Nory Ryan's Song takes students back to Ireland in 1845 and shows them what life was like. The oppression of the English was a terrible problem for the Irish at that time. The Great Hunger killed many, but it is also the reason that many Irish came to America. It took great strength for them to make the journey. It is an important book for children to read. It helps explain what really happened and what life was like for these people.

Children will be able to relate to the main character, Nory Ryan. She is a young girl with many responsibilities. This book is a wonderful tool for teaching about Ireland and the Great Hunger. It might also be a good tool when talking about family history. Students with Irish ancestry may be very interested in the story. A glossary of Irish terms included at the front of the book and a letter from the author at the end makes this story even more real. The author explains that it was her family history that caused her to write this book. She wanted people to know the truth about what happened during that horrible time in history. She accomplished her goal with the publication of this book.