Cushman, Karen. The loud silence of Francine Green.CUSHMAN, Karen. The loud silence of Francine Green. Houghton Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational publisher in the United States. The company's headquarters is located in Boston's Back Bay. It publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers , Clarion A family of application development systems for Windows from SoftVelocity, Inc., Pompano Beach, FL (www.softvelocity.com). Clarion provides a comprehensive set of tools for development, including a screen builder, 4GL and application generator. . 228p. bibliog. c2006.0-618-50455-9. $16.00. J * The past that Cushman (Newbery Medal winner for The Midwife's Apprentice) recreates in this work of historical fiction is much more recent than her medieval stories--here, two girlfriends attend Catholic school in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. in 1949. The narrator NARRATOR. A pleader who draws narrs serviens narrator, a sergeant at law. Fleta, 1. 2, c. 37. Obsolete. , Francine, is part of a solid family; she is conservative and "silent," yet her best friend is her opposite: Sophie challenges everything she hears and doesn't hesitate to speak out. Sophie lives with her father and they are friends with a screenwriter who is being investigated as a Communist, in danger of being blacklisted. Sophie organizes protests and she questions such horrors as the atom bomb--in fact she is an avid "Ban the Bomb" activist. When people's right to free speech is in danger, Sophie speaks out, even when she gets in big trouble at school with the nuns, who are about as politically conservative as they could possibly be. (These are not the days of the Catholic peace activists A peace activist is a political activist who strives for peace, and against war. Peace activists are part of the peace movement. The role played by peace activists in preventing wars have been questioned in a paper published by Dr. in the 1960s.) Cushman's exceptional skill at creating characters is evident as Francine slowly begins to at least harbor doubts about the correctness of everything she has been taught--still, Francine remains silent, even as Sophie's life disintegrates under the pressure of the House on Un-American Activities Committee. In the end, Francine understands that silence means complicity com·plic·i·ty n. pl. com·plic·i·ties Involvement as an accomplice in a questionable act or a crime. complicity Noun pl -ties . Cushman has a lengthy note at the end of the story, and includes a brief bibliography and a Q&A section in which she reveals that when she was a student at a Catholic school in the 1950s, she was cautioned to not question authority. She says she wrote this story because she is afraid today's students do not understand how important it is to defend our First Amendment rights, especially freedom of speech. Claire Rosser, KLIATT J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers. *--The asterisk (1) See Asterisk PBX. (2) In programming, the asterisk or "star" symbol (*) means multiplication. For example, 10 * 7 means 10 multiplied by 7. The * is also a key on computer keypads for entering expressions using multiplication. highlights exceptional books. |
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