This book about a young girl's experience in Virginia during the Civil War centers on the theme of breaking traditions and challenging stereotypes. India, tutored by a family friend after the schools close because the teacher goes off to fight, learns chemistry and biology rather than the Women subjects her mother asked her to learn. There is a fascinating tale of how medicine evolved from dealing with spirits and bleeding out to the science of microorganisms and bacteri during this tumultuous time in history. It also very clearly shows how the South struggled simply due to poor medical attention for their army. In the end, India finds her way North to enroll in a college that accepts women with the hope that someday things will open up for her.
This is a hard historical fiction book, with scenes centered around the famous battles and much talk of the Lee, Grant, Lincoln, etc.
This could be a suitable book for inclusion in a Civil War study, especially since it provides insight from a female perspective and illuminates a wider look at the social fabric of the time.
I have also been reading The Help by Katherine Stockart which is historical fiction for adults. Set in the 60's it is a story told by three women about the Negro maids and their struggle in the time of civil rights movement. The third women is a single, white women who wants to become a journalist and interviews the maids about what it is like to be a maid for a white family. During the time of deaths of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, and JFK, this is a very risky thing for these women.
Anyway, even though this doesn't fit in the YAL category, when you have time to read adult stuff again, I highly recommend.
I am curious about this book. My colleague (history teacher) and I want to encourage multiple perspectives among our students and you mentioned a female perspective. It sounds good. However, you described it as a ‘hard historical fiction book.’ It sounds a dense book, rich with descriptions, not the author’s writing style. Is that right? Some students can handle detailed description through concept mapping but they get easily frustrated with an author’s idiomatic expressions.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, have you started thinking about a nonfiction book for our reading group?