Susannah [Hardcover]

Janet Hickman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 1998 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Susannah is a teenage girl who has been brought by her widowed father to live in a Shaker settlement in Ohio in 1810. In this austere, orderly community, Susannah grieves for her mother and longs for the simple freedoms of the outside world.'

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Hickman presents an insightful introduction to Shaker culture in this heartfelt story set in 1810. Her smooth development of the events will have readers rooting for Susannah's flight to freedom," wrote PW. Ages 10-14.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-When Susannah's mother dies, the girl and her rigid father join the Shaker community on the Ohio frontier. Unlike her father, Susannah does not accept the lifestyle and beliefs of this group and longs to live with her mother's family. At 13, she's clear about the values she cherishes and feels that they are something she shared with her mother. Finally, her father comes to understand her feelings and allows her to make her own decision about leaving. Two plot elements move the story forward: Susannah's effort to restore herself and her young charge, Mary, to loving environments; and the pending attack of unsympathetic settlers on the Shakers. With introspective, sometimes eloquent language, Hickman portrays the girl's despair. Susannah is multidimensional and faced with difficult dichotomies, though surrounding characters are not as thoroughly developed. The novel is rich with historical texture. Readers learn how all members of this religious community worked to build and acquire, and how children were raised apart from their parents. The themes are stated early in the novel but build very slowly to resolution. Engaged readers will stick with this story and be rewarded. Others will miss a tenacious heroine and a valuable historical perspective rarely treated in children's fiction.
Carolyn Noah, Central Mass. Regional Library System, Worcester, MA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books; 1st edition (October 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688148549
• ISBN-13: 978-0688148546
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,174,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book!, October 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Susannah (Hardcover)

Susannah was just thirteen when her mother died. Then, to her dismay, her father decided the two would leave their Kentucky home and join a Shaker community in Ohio. Susannah hates life among the Shakers. They do not believe in families being together, and expect Susannah and the other children to forsake their ties to their parents and to the outside world. But Susannah defies all that. She is determined to help a little six year old girl, Mary, whose father has also decided to join the community with his child, escape and rejoin her mother in the outside world. But when given a chance for freedom, Susannah must choose between obtaining her own freedom or being there for little Mary. This sad, heart-wrenching novel explores issues of family, love, and loss, as a teenaged girl balances her own needs with that of the young girl entrusted to her care by a desperate mother. This is a must read!