Eleanor, Elizabeth - Softcover

Libby Gleeson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141303026 ISBN 13: 9780141303024

Publisher: Puffin, 1998

Synopsis

Having left the town and the friends of her childhood, a twelve-year-old Australian girl finds the land and the house of her grandmother to be an alien place, full of other people's memories.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7-- Eleanor Elizabeth Wheeler, 12, is upset when her family moves to her mother's childhood home in the Australian West. While rummaging around in the old schoolhouse on the property, she discovers the diary of her grandmother, Elizabeth, who had died when Eleanor was three. The diary, written in 1895, is a delightful and intriguing format through which Elizabeth comes not only to understand and love the beauty and ruggedness of the bush, but also to appreciate her own concerns in light of her grandmother's. In the climactic and exciting scene, Eleanor, caught with her brothers and a friend in a huge bush fire, is able to save them all by finding her grandmother's secret cave from which they can feel the fire thundering over them. Gleeson uses italicized phrases to indicate Eleanor's private thoughts and concerns. The meaning of the Australian colloquialisms are evident within the context; they don't impede this sensitive story of a young girl's growing understanding of herself. In a nice touch, the book ends with Eleanor beginning her own diary, a gift from her mother. --Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Puffin
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0141303026
• ISBN 13: 9780141303024
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 144