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Title details for Almost Eden by Anita Horrocks - Available

Almost Eden

by Anita Horrocks
ebook
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It is the hot prairie summer of her twelfth year and Elsie is at a crossroads. Her beloved mother who is mentally ill has been hospitalized, and Elsie thinks that the breakdown is all her fault. Mental illness is simply not discussed in Elsie’s close-knit Mennonite community and she is rudderless. Nothing Elsie does seems to go right: there’s no pleasing her bossy older sister; she forgets to feed the cat, so her father gives it away; she’s supposed to watch out for her younger sister, but she lets her come home alone from the swimming pool (despite the lurking menace of a weird stranger around town); and she bargains with God to make her mother well again — to no evident avail.
Elsie’s conversations with God, her struggle to overcome guilt, and her honest desire to prove herself are laced with a wicked wit and clarity of vision. Almost Eden is a beautiful portrait of a town, a family, and a young woman willing to challenge the things that don’t make sense to her, and to fix the things that don’t seem right.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 5, 2009

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781770490338

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781770490338
      • File size: 2291 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • ATOS Level: 4.3
    • Interest Level: 4-8(MG)
    • Text Difficulty: 3

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      May 15, 2006
      Gr. 5-8. Growing up in a close-knit Mennonite community on the Canadian prairie in the late 1960s, Elsie, 12, blames herself when Mom is once again hospitalized for depression. Elsie talks to God about her guilt, about her scraps with Dad and her sisters, and about her spiteful behavior toward her two best friends. No wonder God isn't answering her prayers to let Mom come home. Maybe there is no God. Horrocks, who was raised Mennonite, never sermonizes as she writes with humor and intensity about big religious issues as well as the small stuff of daily life; even as Elsie struggles with God, she worries about getting her period and about the boy who tells her to shave her legs. Both harsh and loving, the characters, seen through Elsie's eyes, are drawn with surprising complexity, and though the story includes two long adventures, its warmth and honesty about a brave girl who loses faith and then finds it again will hold young readers. Give this to middle-graders who liked Judy Blume's " Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret " (1970). (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:4.3
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:3

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