Wild Ride to Heaven [Hardcover]

Leander Watts (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

Something strange is out in the woods. Something Hannah has never seen before. Good or evil, she can’t tell. But she knows she must go out and meet it.
Hannah lives in the lonely frontier backwoods. Her mother has abandoned her for reasons she can only guess. And her father spends all his time hunting for some mythical treasure she knows he’ll never find. So for food and shelter and the warmth of a fire, Hannah must do all the work.
Then her father sells her to be a house servant and she is sent away. For a whole year she’s condemned to work like a slave for the brutal, cruel Barrow brothers.
There, in the dead of night, she sees a strange white figure. And she begins a curious friendship and starts her adventure of escape, discovery, and reclaiming what is rightfully hers.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-In her pioneering village in rural New York, Hannah, 14, is feared to be a witch or sorceress because of her milk-colored eye. An outcast, she lives with her father on a remote farm on the outskirts of town. In his obsession to find the road to riches, he sells her off to two brothers as their servant girl and perhaps, in time, as a wife to one of them. Determined to find a way out of this "contract," Hannah befriends a mysterious stranger who lives in the woods and helps her run away. Despite being an apparent victim, Hannah is a character of undeniable strength and compassion. Frustrated that her father keeps bringing on mischief and affliction, she recognizes that he is "like a child sometimes, and [she] the mother taking care of him." She is indeed the constant that holds the homestead together until her world falls apart and her father acts out of desperation. This story is peppered with a unique blend of various genres and a clear foreshadowing of a plot shrouded in mystery. However, none of these elements is fully developed. The appeal of the book lies only in the sheer will and determination of the protagonist in the face of harsh realism.
Kimberly Monaghan, formerly at Vernon Area Public Library, IL
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 9-12. Like Watts' first novel, Stonecutter (2002), this moody, atmospheric story takes place in post-Revolutionary War Genesee Valley in upstate "York," and has a similar, suspenseful plot. To finance an ill-conceived treasure hunt, Hannah Renner's father, an alcoholic dreamer, sells her into service to the brutish Barrow brothers. Alone with the hulking angry men, deep in the woods, she secretly befriends another isolated youth, the gentle Brother Boy, an albino who lives in the wild. After Hannah learns that the eldest Barrow plans to marry her, the young friends run away, and a violent dramatic chase ensues. The happy ending is a bit too easily achieved, but it works well to highlight the vulnerability of youth; for although Hannah is a strong female character, with a clear sense of herself and her world, she is ultimately at the mercy of her father's choices, even as she recognizes that she is often more adult than he. Rebecca Platzner
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; F edition (September 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618268057
• ISBN-13: 978-0618268054
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 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: #3,523,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Facing the specter of marriage and a lifetime of drudgery, May 18, 2004

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

This review is from: Wild Ride to Heaven (Hardcover)

Hannah lives in a lonely backwoods home: her mother has abandoned the family, her father spends his time treasure-hunting, in search of a better life - leaving Hannah to do all the work. When her father sells her to be a house servant, her life changes even more for the worse. Trapped by the brutal Barrow brothers and facing the specter of marriage and a lifetime of drudgery, Hannah finds her way out in form of a strange friendship in this moving story.