Nory Ryan's Song (Paperback)

by Patricia Reilly Giff (Author) "Someone was calling..." (more)
Key Phrases: blue stone eyes, Sean Red, Smith Street, Lord Cunningham (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Life is hard for poor Irish potato farmers, but 12-year-old Nory Ryan and her family have always scraped by... until one morning, Nory wakes to the foul, rotting smell of diseased potatoes dying in the fields. And just like that, all their hopes for the harvest--for this year and next--are dashed. Hunger sets in quickly. The beaches are stripped of edible seaweed, the shore is emptied of fish, desperate souls even chew on grass for the nourishment. As her community falls apart, Nory scrambles to find food for her family. Meanwhile, the specter of America lurks, where, the word is, no one is ever hungry, and horses carry milk in huge cans down cobblestone streets.

As Patricia Reilly Giff writes in her note to the reader, the Great Hunger of 1845 to 1852 was a tragic time for the Irish. Enough food to feed double the population was sent out across the sea, while an indifferent government ignored the starving masses. More than one million of the eight million people in Ireland died. Nory Ryan's Song, a fictionalized account based on this terrible era in history, describes the heroic struggles of one girl who refuses to give in to hunger, exhaustion, and hopeless circumstances. Young readers may have heard of the Irish Potato Famine, but they won't truly understand it until they meet Nory. Giff is the author of many beloved books for children, including the Newbery Honor Book Lily's Crossing and the Polk Street School series. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
"Giff meticulously re-creates the Great Hunger as she traces a 19th-century Irish girl's struggle to survive," PW wrote. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (September 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440418291
• ISBN-13: 978-0440418290
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,110 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #10 in	Books > Children's Books > History & Historical Fiction > Fiction > Europe
  #33 in	Books > Children's Books > Educational > Explore the World > Fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A young girl's courage keeps her family alive., August 30, 2000

By	Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nory Ryan's Song (Hardcover)

Twelve-year-old Nory Ryan and her family have always lived a meager life in the Irish countryside, but they have always managed to make ends meet. But now it's 1845, and a terrible blight is attacking the potato crops, the main source of food for the Irish peasants. And not only are the in danger of starvation, but their English landlord is threatening to turn them off the land that should be theirs if they don't pay the rent soon. But Nory is brave and resourceful, and she comes up with ways to stretch their food, pay the rent, and keep herself and her family and friends alive. But as time goes by, things get harder. Nory dreams of a better live. Can she find what it take to survive until the day she can make her dreams come true? This was a beautifully written historical novel about an ordinary girl's immense courage and resourcefullness during a tragic and difficult time in history. Highly reccomended to historical fiction fans.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The English holocaust, July 9, 2005

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It seems uniquely challenging. The idea of making a readable children's book out of something so bleak and depressing as the Irish Potato Famine. Yet as an author, Giff has never shied away from difficult subjects. Whether you're following the trials of a 1870 German immigrant to Brooklyn in "The House of Tailors", or a 1940's Hungarian escapee in "Lily's Crossing", Giff has become one of those go-to historical fiction writers. With an emphasis on immigration, emigration, and forced transplantation, her books strain to find a balance between absolute historical accuracy and something your ten-year-old would actually (willingly) pick up on their own. Personally, when I was ten years of age I wouldn't have picked up "Nory Ryan's Song" for all the gold in King Solomon's mines. For those children that have strong stomachs and even stronger nerves, however, the book is a distinctly well-written explanation of why many of us in America sport Irish-American heritage.

Yeah, Nory's got a pretty nice life. True, her mother's dead and her father's away at sea to fish and pay the family's bills. Still, she has her two older sisters, her grandfather, her little brother Patch, and her best friend Sean to keep her company. And then one day she detects an odd smell in the air.... And even odder screams of panic from over the hills. The smell, as it turns out, is that of potatoes dying of a particularly nasty blight. The screams are the people who realize that death is staring them in the face. Before she knows it, Nory's potato patch is infested as well and the family is left with zero food to get by on. The English lord, Cunningham, who owns the land isn't about to show any mercy to his Irish tenants, and people begin to grow more and more desperate as he takes their lifestock for rent. In the end, Nory must decide what's most important to her as she takes amazing risks to find a way to keep the people she loves alive.

In writing this tale, Giff fast-forwards the tragedy a bit more than is strictly necessary. For example, the residents of Nory's village discover the potato blight one day and exactly two days later literally everybody's starving. Surely they weren't eating the underripe potatoes until now. It seems an odd way to write the book. Of course there's no faulting the language. Giff knows how to write something gripping and more than a little compelling. She parallels Nory's desperation with the hope that her father will, soon, return with money for food. Still, there are some moments in the book where it gets so downright depressing that it's all the reader can do to keep slogging on. For some kids, of course, this is a bonus. And certainly it would have been a far greater crime if Giff had played off the entire tragedy in a happy-go-lightly manner. All I'm saying is that this book, rather than being required reading for EVERY child in a certain grade, should only be given to kids who already enjoy historical fiction, tragedy, and a strong female narrator.

It's difficult to fault this novel. Giff knows from whence she writes and nobody in her field does a better job of describing degradation. No one. I don't see this book as the most pleasurable reading out there, but it's undoubtedly one of the best written. For the full effects of the Irish Potato Famine, there is nowhere else to turn.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nory Ryan's Song, March 12, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Nory Ryan's Song (Hardcover)

Recently, I read the novel, Nory Ryan's Song, by Patricia Reilly Giff. Personally, I rated this book 5 stars because it showed how life really was for some people. She shows how life was during the depression in Ireland. She also uses impecable description. She shows the setting and charactors in a clear and well detailed way. The main charactor in the book was easy to relate to. Even I could relate to her. Nory is Irish, I am Irish. Nory loves potatoes, I LOVE potatoes. I would recommend this to 13+ and people who like realistic fiction. This book has a little bit of Gaelic in it so it may be difficult for younger children. The story and plot are believable and it's about something that happened in real life with fictional charactors. This book is enjoyable and I would recommend this book and author in the future!