Arrington, Frances. Prairie whispers.Penguin Putnam, Philomel phil·o·mel n. A nightingale. [Alteration (influenced by French philomèle) of Middle English phylomene, from Medieval Latin philom . 184p. c2003. 0-399-23975-8. $17.99. A stunning painting of a girl carrying a baby on the open prairie, with a bolt of lightning on the far horizon, introduces this suspenseful historical novel. Admittedly the premise takes a leap of faith on the part of the reader: Colleen's mother gives birth to an infant who dies just as a woman alone in a prairie wagon dies, handing her tiny infant over to Colleen col·leen n. An Irish girl. [Irish Gaelic cailín, diminutive of caile, girl, from Old Irish. to care for. Colleen switches the babies, never telling her family what she has done. This huge secret haunts Colleen, because basically she is an honest person who tries to do the right thing. The suspense builds as the husband of the dead woman returns, looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a gold watch and a box of money that had been in the wagon. The dying woman had given these to Colleen for the baby, but Colleen lost the box on the prairie when a bolt of lightning spooked her horse. The man threatens to take the baby away if Colleen doesn't come up with the money that was in the box--so poor Colleen doesn't know what else to do but steal money from her parents and a neighbor to appease ap·pease tr.v. ap·peased, ap·peas·ing, ap·peas·es 1. To bring peace, quiet, or calm to; soothe. 2. To satisfy or relieve: appease one's thirst. 3. the man. You can't imagine all the details of this story: rattlesnake rattlesnake, poisonous New World snake of the pit viper family, distinguished by a rattle at the end of the tail. The head is triangular, being widened at the base. The rattle is a series of dried, hollow segments of skin, which, when shaken, make a whirring sound. bite, prairie fire Noun 1. prairie fire - an uncontrolled fire in a grassy area grassfire fire - the event of something burning (often destructive); "they lost everything in the fire" , lost child. Arrington makes this a gripping story because Colleen is constantly faced with difficult moral choices--there is no clear right and wrong. Each of her decisions is calculated to be the best choice but not necessarily a good choice. Each option causes ripples of effects. She doesn't go to her parents for advice because she knows them to be rigidly legalistic--she wants to protect the little baby above all else and feels justified to lie and keep secrets and even steal to keep the baby safe. Even the villain, the father of the baby, is not all bad: he's greedy and weak, but has his own decency too. Life on the prairie in the 1860s, isolated, difficult, but beautiful, is described lyrically--but it is the suspense and the repercussions repercussions npl → répercussions fpl repercussions npl → Auswirkungen pl around keeping secrets that make this a good choice for younger YAs. |
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