A Simple Gift - Hardcover

Nancy Ruth Patterson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374369240 ISBN 13: 9780374369248

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2003

Synopsis

Finding the courage to make amends

Ten-year-old Carrie O’Connor wants to be an actress. After starring as a singing tooth in her class play at a New York City school, she convinces her parents to let her audition for a summer theater production in the mountains of North Carolina. And not just any production – it is a play based on a beloved children’s book written by her own mother! By virtue of a plucky audition (and not, she makes certain, her relation to the book’s author), Carrie is invited to join the cast. But as Michael Madigan’s Curtain Call wends its way toward opening night, Carrie makes a blunder so big it threatens to topple the whole production.

Young readers will identify with this spunky young heroine as she finds a way to put things right – and makes some unexpected discoveries about her writer-mother’s past in the process.

About this title

About the Author

Nancy Ruth Patterson has written two other novels for children, The Christmas Cup and The Shiniest Rock of All, both of which have been produced professionally as plays. She lives in Roanoke, Virginia.

Reviews

Grade 3-6-Budding actors especially will appreciate this contemporary novel about the theater experiences of a 10-year-old New Yorker during her summer vacation. Carrie travels to her mother's hometown in North Carolina to audition for a part in a play based on one of the woman's best-selling children's novels. The story line involves a popular boy letting an unpopular boy substitute for him in a school play. The lead, who cannot read or write well but has a natural talent as an actor, is talked into taking the part by the director, who grew up in the town and is now a success on Broadway. By the end of the book, Carrie realizes that the main characters are modeled after her uncle, who drowned when he was young, and her mother's childhood acquaintance-"Louis the Loser," who is now a director. Good characterizations and a well-developed plot make this an enjoyable read.
Marilyn Ackerman, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3-6. After a well-received turn as a tooth in a class play, 10-year-old Carrie O'Connor decides she wants to be an actress. An opportunity for a more professional role appears in her mother's North Carolina hometown. Mrs. O'Connor is the author of the famous Mike Madigan series for children, and one of the books has been turned into a play. Carrie wins a role--on her own merits--but things almost blow up when she blabs that the show's young star has to be taught his lines because he has trouble reading. This could have used some tightening and revision. Carrie's age is not clear at first; she seems more like 7 or 8 than 10, especially for a New York City kid. There are too many stock characters, and it's odd that a famous Broadway director (also a hometown boy) is putting on this play. Patterson does have some nice touches, however, including getting some of the story out in newspaper articles and a poignant last chapter that links Mike Madigan with a family story. Those looking for a book with a contemporary setting that harkens back to an earlier era will find it here. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374369240
• ISBN 13: 9780374369248
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128