Wells, Rosemary. Red moon at Sharpsburg.WELLS, Rosemary rosemary [ultimately from Lat.,=dew of the sea], widely cultivated evergreen and shrubby perennial (Rosmarinus officinalis) of the family Labiatae (mint family), fairly hardy and native to the Mediterranean region. It has small light-blue flowers. . Red moon at Sharpsburg. Penguin penguin, originally the common name for the now extinct great auk of the N Atlantic and now used (since the 19th cent.) for the unrelated antarctic diving birds. , Viking. 238p. c2007. 0-670-03638-2. $16.99. JS* History becomes as real as the present in this fine novel about the Civil War in Virginia in the Shenandoah valley Shenandoah valley, part of the Great Valley of the Appalachians, c.150 mi (240 km) long, N Va., located between the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny mts. The valley is divided into two parts by Massanutten Mt., a ridge c.45 mi (70 km) long and c.3,000 ft (915 m) high. , as experienced by India from when she is 12 at the beginning of the war in 1861, until she is ready to leave home as a young woman in the months just before Lee's surrender in 1865. The war takes away her father and destroys her home and family, as it destroys her neighbors and all she knows. India is fiercely intelligent and latches on to a young man, Emory Trimble, who is obsessed ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. by a search for the causes of infection. India becomes his assistant, keeping lab records and trying to find molds and other natural substances that can destroy the bacteria they see in their microscopes. Emory joins the Confederate Army medical corps and preaches hygiene relentlessly, though few other doctors listen. India tries her best to help on the home front, but misery, illness, and violence prevail for the most part. Their little neighborhood is complex, a microcosm mi·cro·cosm n. A small, representative system having analogies to a larger system in constitution, configuration, or development: "He sees the auto industry as a microcosm of the U.S. of the South. She and a married couple, freed slaves Micah and Ester, compromise everyone by nursing a wounded Union officer back to health and hiding him from the local authorities. Wells's writing is vivid, often poetic. India's character is a marvelous combination of vulnerability, strength and intelligence. The towns near India are close to some of the worst battles of the Civil War: Sharpsburg, Antietam, Manassus. This is essential American history, and in this novel, readers learn about an important theater in that war and also something of women's history ''This article is about the history of women. For information on the field of historical study, see Gender history. Women's history is the history of female human beings. Rights and equality Women's rights refers to the social and human rights of women. as we see India's intellectual gifts and how little opportunity is available for her to become educated. Excellent supplementary material for US history classes. J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers. S--Recommended for senior high school students. *--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. Claire Rosser, KLIATT |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion