Quinn Wagner's fifteenth summer starts off well. She has a part-time job and a crush on a young neighbor. Only one thing makes Quinn feel uneasy this summer of 1933. Her father, Beau John, has lost his job. He is working far up the coast from their Seattle home and can only come home on weekends. Beau John is greatly missed, as he is the hero of the neighborhood, everyone's favorite storyteller, and the man to whom folks always turn when they're in trouble. Now Quinn fears that her father himself may be in trouble. She overhears a stranger angrily threaten him, and the next weekend Beau John does not return home. If he is in danger, what can she do to help? Before the story ends, Quinn must confront some surprising facts about her father - and about herself.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8. Everyone loves Quinn's father. His charming stories and knack for helping people and making them feel good about themselves has made him the Pied Piper of his neighborhood. However, like others during the Depression in 1933, Beau John is down on his luck. Having lost his job as a bookkeeper, the only work he can find is as a dock laborer in a town north of Seattle, which means he is only home on the weekends. When he doesn't arrive one Saturday, a string of connections point to Beau John as a bootlegger. Fifteen-year-old Quinn can't believe her wonderful father could be less than perfect. Determined to find him and the truth, she confronts shady situations with the help of the mute old man who lives next door with the elderly Dallas sisters; their nephew Justin; and Betty, a tartish teenage neighbor. Most of the story takes place in a week's time with the tension building slowly to the night that Beau John doesn't come home. Thesman creates a strong sense of place and time when family ties and neighborhood unity were primary values and movies with dish raffles were the prime entertainment. Quinn's anxiety and naivete, her crush on Justin, and her belief in her father reflect the reality of the times and the realization of trust in one's self.?Julie Cummins, New York Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
In a compelling novel, Thesman (The Ornament Tree, 1996, etc.) combines a tale rich in family ties and homey comforts with history that is unsettling and unpleasant. In Depression-era Seattle, Quinn Wagner, 15, copes with a houseful of relatives, a mother in poor health, an older sister who dropped out of school to work, and an exasperating kid brother. Her father, affectionately called Beau John by all, is the emotional linchpin and center of his extended family, his tales and stories cherished by them and his unobtrusive acts of kindness known to the whole neighborhood. But he is away save for one night a week, chasing work. When Quinn overhears a conversation that hints at her father's unsavory and dangerous employment, she keeps it and her growing fears to herself. Knit seamlessly into the tale are rabidly anti-communist Catholics, Hoovervilles where homeless men live in shacks and search futilely for jobs, and Prohibition-era rum-running; meanwhile, Quinn's family and friends deal endlessly but ingeniously with financial hardship. As the summer goes on, Quinn finds her affection growing for her elderly neighbors' nephew and, as she learns of the lengths to which her father has gone to help support them, develops a more complex, less black-and-white outlook regarding Beau John's business. The denouement is satisfying but not simpleit's a small light the future holds. Above all, Quinn's story puts a human face a time most readers only know by its namethe Depression. (Fiction 10-14) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Proving that courage is not an attribute of a certain age...,
This review is from: The Storyteller's Daughter (Paperback)
In her inimitable style, Jean Thesman pens a book about the trials of life as a teenage girl during Prohibition. She captures the feeling of the era so wondrously that you feel as if you are 15-year old Quinn. Her father, Beau John, is endeared by the whole neighborhood for his easygoing and generous personality. Once a bookkeeper, he is forced to work long hours as a dock laborer in another city, and come home only on weekends. As Quinn learns of the suspicious circumstances surrounding his failure to come home from work one weekend, she learns that nobody's perfect, and that the fine line between good and evil can blur around the edges. In this sterling example of an adolescent's initiation into adulthood, you see that even the most deceptively simple ideas are full of complexities, and that we must be brave enough to face them.
5.0 out of 5 stars
One storyteller's triumph!,
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This review is from: The Storyteller's Daughter (Paperback)
What a gorgeous book this is; well written, with realistic characters and fabulous wit and humour...it's hard to believe this book is so hard to get hold of thesedays, especially when lesser books are so freely available. Publishers, eh? Go figure...
Although set in the days of Prohibition and the Great Depression, when no one had much money, and jobs were very hard to come by (very dark days indeed!) this is nonetheless one of the most joyful and uplifting tales I've ever read, a true case of finding a silver lining even on the darkest of clouds. Quinn is a truly inspiring heroine, and her family and friends are amazing. In spite of the adverse conditions they face in their lives, they all make the best of it, and find their own fun...their sense of humour is never diminished. There's good people and bad in Quinn's neighbourhood, but they love and care for each other, and when someone is in trouble, everyone else helps out. I only wish society was still this neighbourly today! Todays kids and teens really should read this, so they will know just what life was like back in grandma and prandpa's day. I doubt my review does justice to the utter fabulousness of this book, or the complexities and nuances of its characters, or the utter realism of it's setting, but trust me...if you can find a copy of this book, buy it, you won't regret it! It will open a window to a time long ago, a poignant phase in American history that should never be forgotten, and thanks to this book, hopefully never will be.
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