From Publishers Weekly
Set in the 19th century, Hurst's ambitious but not wholly successful first novel follows the story of orphaned 11-year-old Etta Prentice. As the story opens, she has wandered into a cabin looking for food and shelter and ends up lodging with its resident, Walter, a boy not much older than she. Together with another boy whom they befriend, they form a sort of family, hatching a plan to operate a lock of a new canal so they can have access to a lockhouse large enough for the trio, plus Walter's mother, and for Etta to reunite her brother and sister there too. The foreshadowing is heavy, and some of the plot points move too quickly (in the course of one chapter, for instance, Etta meets Walter's drunken father, then finds him dead, then helps Walter transport the corpse to the church for burial). Plus, the ease with which Walter accepts Etta into his home and life happens too suddenly for it to be believable. Still, Hurst creates a likable narrator in Etta, a heroine with admirable determination, as well as an atmospheric backdrop with details of how the locks work, the strife the canal causes among riverside communities and references to Shaker life. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Gr 5-8-Etta Prentice, an 11-year-old orphan in Connecticut in the first half of the 19th century, runs away from her foster home and meets Walter, a boy living in an abandoned cabin on the New Haven and Northampton Canal. He conveys his love of canals and locks to Etta as they manage to eke out a living together while also having some adventures. Losing the corpse of Walter's drunkard father while dragging him on a long sled headed for home is one of the more memorable ones. While Etta is unable to fulfill her dream of having her brother and sister join her, she does learn that families don't have to live under the same roof to be connected. The author touches on many issues of the time: the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and mill girls, slavery, immigration, Shakers, and the controversial canals themselves. Hurst does an admirable job of presenting a topic not often found in historical novels for young readers. This well-researched, first-person narrative contains a brief glossary and an afterword of explanation. A minor quibble: one of the seven terms in the glossary is "Eh-yah," a slang variation of yes, still heard in Maine. Judging from the bumper stickers here, that's "Ayuh."-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
