Grandpa's Mountain - Hardcover

Reeder, Carolyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0027758117 ISBN 13: 9780027758115

Publisher: Aladdin, 1991

Synopsis

During the Depression, eleven-year-old Carrie makes her annual summer visit to her relatives in the Blue Ridge Mountains and watches her determined grandfather fight against the government's attempt to take his farm land for a new national park.

About this title

About the Author:

Carolyn Reeder is an avid history buff with a longtime interest in the civil war. Her other historical novels for young people include Grandpa's Mountain, Moonshiner's Son, Across the Lines, and the award-winning Shades of Gray, which was an ALA Notable Book and winner of the 1990 Scott O'Dell Award, the Child Study Association Award, and the Jefferson Cup Award, among other honors.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-8-- Historical facts surrounding the 1935 creation of Shenandoah National Park form the base on which Reeder convincingly overlays a fictional story rich in character delineation and development. Carrie, 11, loves to spend summers at her grandparents' home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, away from hard times in the city. Everything is thrown akimbo when the government begins buying up thousands of mountain acres, evicting the occupants and burning their homes. At first Grandpa is unbelieving, then he convinces himself that, with the support of his like-minded neighbors, he can fight to win. However, many of them--poor and uneducated, some merely subsistence tenant farmers--welcome the chance to sell or be relocated near town and are furious at him for interfering. The longer Grandpa fights, the more alone he stands. While resisting change, he himself is changed, becoming as hard and intractable as the men he opposes. Carrie is torn between her respect for him and shock at his behavior. Through seemingly traitorous actions, Grandma makes it possible for him to win his personal fight against defeatism. Carrie returns to her parents' home at summer's end, strengthened by two stalwart grandparents and the way each chose to deal with crisis. This portrayal of one set of events and its consequences during the Great Depression has relevance for situations today in which the government still pits projected benefits for the many against total disruption of the few. --Katharine Bruner, Brown Middle School, Harrison, TN
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aladdin
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0027758117
• ISBN 13: 9780027758115
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176