A Simple Gift - Softcover

Patterson, Nancy Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1440112061 ISBN 13: 9781440112065

Publisher: iUniverse, 2009

Synopsis

Ten-year-old Carrie O'Connor has lots of questions.

Where does her mother, a famous New York children's writer, find ideas for her best-selling Michael Madigan series? Why does her father, a busy surgeon, sometimes spend more time curing people than caring for her? How would her life change if she landed a role in a play directed by a Broadway director?

Carrie unwraps the answers in a Junior Library Guild selection called "a love song to the theatre...a love song to life."

Selected for William Allen White and Mark Twain Master Lists.

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.

From Booklist

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: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1440112061
• ISBN 13: 9781440112065
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128