A Very Fine Line [Hardcover]

Julie Johnston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2006 | Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

Rosalind Kemp is the youngest in a family of sisters. She lives a comfortable life in a small town in Ontario. Ros is active, loving, and artistic. And, she has second sight.

It is a part of her nature with which she has trouble coming to terms: sometimes it is nothing more than a pleasant parlor trick, like knowing that King Edward will abdicate; sometimes it is a curse that makes her feel freakish; and sometimes it is just plain terrifying. Ros tries everything she can to suppress the gift, and subsequently herself, but nothing works. If she is going to live her life fully, she will have to come to terms with every part of her being, just as everyone must.

This brilliant novel is Julie Johnston at her very best: it is funny, frightening, and painfully insightful.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–9—Rosalind Kemp, 13, is happily ensconced in her comfortable surroundings within a large family of sisters in Ontario, Canada. The year is late 1941, bombs fall on Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. goes to war. Rosalind, too, has a "bomb" dropped into her life when a chance encounter with her notoriously peculiar elderly aunts and the strange, lunatic woman who lives with them brings her upsetting and confusing news. Her mother has withheld from her the fact that Rosalind has a mentally ill sister, and that she is not the sixth but the seventh daughter. According to her aunts, since her mother, too, was a seventh daughter, Rosalind bears the gift of prophecy and second sight. As Johnson deftly foreshadows the intriguing plot, evidence of the girl's sensory abilities begins to surface, which she tries every possible way to suppress, including pretending to be a boy. Through interesting characters, such as Rosalind's rigid and overly proud mother and an unconventional older sister, the plot weaves its way through a series of twists and turns sure to hold readers' interest. Rosalind's conflicting emotions during her intuitive episodes are superbly portrayed, as is her coming to terms with who she is, proving once again Johnston's masterful use of narrative to create poignant fiction.—D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Thirteen-year-old Rosalind knows that she has strong visual memories of moments in her past. But when an aunt informs her that as the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, she can also see glimpses of the future, she balks. First denying, then realizing that she is indeed the seventh daughter, she stoutly refuses to be the seventh daughter by cutting her hair, donning boy's clothes, and answering only to the name Ross. The story begins in Kempton, Ontario, in 1941. Despite the gravity of a war drawing the community's young men and women to Europe, Rosalind pays a price for her determined eccentricity. Readers who come to the book intrigued by the idea of clairvoyance will find much more: several vivid characters, a well-realized setting, and a sensitively nuanced resolution of Rosalind's inner struggle as she goes through inevitable changes. From the author of In Spite of the Killer Bees (2001), this is a creative coming-of-age story. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Hardcover: 198 pages
• Publisher: Tundra Books (September 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 088776746X
• ISBN-13: 978-0887767463
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,055,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An involving, fun story teens will find engrossing., December 9, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Very Fine Line (Hardcover)

Rosalind is the youngest in a family of sisters and lives in a small Ontario town. She's artistic and fun-loving - and she has second sight. Her attempts to come to terms with a unique talent offers an involving, fun story teens will find engrossing.