Captain Kate (An Avon Camelot Book) - Hardcover

Reeder, Carolyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380976285 ISBN 13: 9780380976287

Publisher: Camelot, 1999

Synopsis

Determined to take her father's coal-carrying barge on the C & O Canal from Cumberland, Maryland, to Georgetown in D.C., twelve-year-old Kate learns hurtful truths about herself

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.

Reviews

Grade 4-7-A novel set during the Civil War. Kate, 12, is resentful of her new stepfather who is away fighting in the Union army and of his children, 12-year-old Seth and 9-year-old Julia. When she learns that her mother plans to rent out the family canal boat for the summer, Kate decides that she will take the vessel the 184 miles down the Cumberland & Ohio Canal. Knowing that she can't possibly make the trip alone and left with no other options, she pressures her stepbrother to go along with her and they leave without her mother's knowledge. Stubborn and fiercely independent, Kate adamantly designates herself captain of The Mary Ann and has little patience with good-natured, virtuous Seth. With quiet resolve, the boy teaches her empathy and, by the novel's end, she has newfound respect and admiration for him. During the journey, she comes to terms with her father's death and realizes that she must accept changes. Julia, Kate's mother, and her stepfather are minor characters who pale in comparison to the thoughtfully created characters of Kate and Seth. Taking place primarily on the canal, the story has plenty of action and detailed descriptions of boats and life along the waterway. Tension builds gradually and is released at exact moments. Fans of Reeder's other books, especially Shades of Gray (Macmillan, 1989), are sure to appreciate this new offering.
Shawn Brommer, Southern Tier Library System, Painted Post, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Setting her story in the third year of the Civil War, Reeder (Foster's War, p. 61, etc.) writes of a young girl who takes it upon herself to pilot the family's canal boat 184 miles from Cumberland, Maryland to Georgetown. Kate, 12, learning that her newly remarried, pregnant mother plans to rent out the family's canal boat, decides to make the journey herself, grudgingly enlisting the help of her new stepbrother, Seth. As the two face the dangers of navigating the canal's locks, both are forced to accept and deal with unpleasant insights about themselves as well as one another. Reeder's detailed and realistic narrative of canal life provides a fascinating portrait of a period unique in US history. The real strength of the novel, however, is in the depiction of the complex, tangled relationship that forms between Kate and Seth, and the emotional growth they experience as they struggle to reconcile their feelings about sharing a new family. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 6^-8. Twelve-year-old Kate has never accepted her mother's remarriage, nor has she welcomed her stepbrother Seth and stepsister Julia into the family. With her step-father fighting in the Civil War and her mother laid up with complications of pregnancy, Kate decides to take her family's coal boat down the C&O Canal with only Seth to help. On the dangerous journey, prickly Kate must confront her worst fears and the worst parts of her nature, while Seth slowly earns her respect. Though in the end, Kate begins to accept her new family, Reeder never minimizes the magnitude of the pain Kate endures, nor the pain she causes others as she makes her transition. Kate's interior change is mirrored in the canal boat trip, another difficult journey with many steps, secrets, discomforts, perils, and unexpected pleasures. The setting makes this an unusual Civil War story for young people; the characters make it a rewarding one. Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Camelot
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0380976285
• ISBN 13: 9780380976287
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 210