Keeping Secrets (Orphan Train Adventures)

Nixon, Joan Lowery

3.9

370 ratings by Goodreads

9780836826432: Keeping Secrets (Orphan Train Adventures)

ISBN 10: 0836826434 ISBN 13: 9780836826432

Publisher: Gareth Stevens Pub, 1999

In 1863, eleven-year-old Peg Kelly is drawn into the dangerous activities of a mysterious young woman who had come to her home in Missouri after fleeing the raid of William Quantrill and his raiders on Lawrence, Kansas

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From the Publisher:

Breaking promises. . .

Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield's father teaches them a secret language called Ithig. All their friends want to know the secret too, but the twins have made a pact with their father not to give it away. Elizabeth, at least, intends to keep her promise. But Jessica can't help herself--she teaches her best friend, Lila Fowler, the secret language. That means that soon the whole school will know Ithig.

Now the class decides to use the language against the one teacher they don't like--Ms. McDonald. They will speak only Ithig in class the day the school supervisor comes to review her. At first, Elizabeth is angry at Jessica for breaking her promise about Ithig--but now Elizabeth wonders: should she break her own promise and warn Ms. McDonald?

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-8-A continuation of the Kelly family saga. In the autumn of 1863, Violet Hennessey, a seemingly nervous young woman, seeks refuge from rampaging bushwhackers with 11-year-old Peg Kelly's family in their St. Joseph, Missouri, home. Peg is preoccupied with trying to be as brave as her brothers and sisters and is drawn to the visitor who treats her as an adult. However, Peg finds many of Violet's actions puzzling, and begins to wonder if she is a Confederate spy. Violet is, in fact, a Union spy, and by the end of this tale, Peg has helped her transmit information vital to breaking the siege of Chattanooga; Violet's brother-in-law has been shot by bushwhackers; and Peg's brother Danny is dead of a fever, which worsened after he left his sickbed to save his sister and Violet from violence at the hands of Confederate sympathizers. Unfortunately, the characters are all one-dimensional. Although Peg professes an ardent desire to grow up, in these pages she does not grow but simply and automatically reacts to the situations in which she is placed. The writing is serviceable, the historical references are wooden, and the plotting is contrived.
Anne Scott, Johnston Public Library, IA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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