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Opere di Mary E. Dawson

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This was a very enjoyable YA adventure story that takes place in the early 1900s in the Florida jungle. The main characters are teenagers - a white "cracker" boy, a Seminole "Indian" boy, and a "colored" city girl. They get lost on the river during a storm and their adventure begins. The story contains a lot of Florida "local color". The last 60 pages are the authors notes on people and places that inspired her story. I enjoyed the notes as much as the story.
 
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LoisB | 2 altre recensioni | May 2, 2014 |
The River Way Home--What a Gem!

I just turned the last page of this book. And, what can I tell you that other reviewers haven’t mentioned already? This book reminded me what it’s like to be a kid, and to dream of grandiose adventures in a world that is full of wildness, wonder, and possibilities. We are so conditioned in this age to wait for the “nightmare” to come out and grab us in current fiction. And, so I waited. And, I waited some more. The fun adventure never turned into a horrible nightmare. Because of this it gave me the ability to relax and really enjoy the mischief that the kids got into along the way.

And, although to some, it might have seemed that the tight situations might have been tall tales stretched a bit too long. But for anyone who has lived in Florida, they might say most of what the kids did seemed like it could have happened. I did live there in the early 1970s through the 1980s. The storms are brutal and frightening, the Everglades were wild, the gators were scary, and I did have occasion to run from the boogie man more than a few times. It’s a bit hard to envision all of this from the big cities of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, but if you go upstate toward the middle—at least back then—you could see how the landscape and the people changed. It was a whole different world that could really give you a glimpse of this untamed wild Florida we see in the book.

So, what if the story is a yarn told by an old grisly cowboy camped out around a fire on a clear starry night? Isn’t that what we are missing these days--just a good old fashioned story to tickle the imagination, and lend a person to believe that their hopes and dreams might come true? That’s what this book was--just a marvelous tale—unique, unlike any I’ve read in a long time. Three scrappy kids, all unlikely friends from totally different backgrounds, fall into all kinds of trouble in the raw wilderness of the Florida Everglades in 1914. This story has heart, and these kids have spunk and guts and imagination to get out of the crazy situations they get into. They’re smart. They’re brave. And, best of all, they are tight and true friends.

The book is full of hope that all their dreams will come true: Blue-eyed Billy wants to have a ranch; the Chief wants the wisdom and insight to lead his people; and, Queenie the Amazon warrior wants to grow up and have adventures, live out quests, and be free. Today these don’t seem like such momentous triumphs. But, in 1914, in the backwoods of that untamed state these were lofty goals for kids to strive for. And, even though the book doesn’t tell us what happened to them when they grew up—we know, by the end of the story, that their dreams probably did come true.

I offer my thanks to Mary Dawson for allowing me to read and review this special story. It really is a gem!
… (altro)
 
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Diane.Walters | 2 altre recensioni | Jan 15, 2014 |
Questa recensione è stata scritta dall'autore.
Alligators, Outlaws, and Tourists! With Historic Photos and the True Stories that Inspired the Tale at the End.

It's 1914, and the Florida jungle between Lake Okeechobee and the Atlantic Ocean is a wild and magical place, but the train will change everything when it reaches the lake in a few months. Three improbable friends, Queenie, a proper young African-American girl from Baltimore who is helping her father search for the fabled Black Seminoles, Billy, a young Cracker fish boy who dreams of becoming a Florida cow hunter, and the Chief, a Seminole boy who sees his way of life disappearing, lose their boat in a storm on the lake.

When the Ashley Gang blocks the only road home, they decide not to go straight back. Instead, they embark on a quest to follow the St. Lucie River to the ocean and see what the future will bring. What they find along the way is themselves.

"The River Way Home" is a tale of old Florida for young and old alike. Rich in historical detail, it draws the reader deep into the beauty and mystery of Florida's unique environment to experience her characters' exploration of friendship, loss, and possibility.

In the spirit of full disclosure I am the author of this book. Of course I gave it five stars, because I believe in it. And I do have it in my library. If I have violated any rules by posting this, please accept my sincere apology. It's just that I could not find another way to list myself as a Library Thing Author. I'll remove this review if anyone else reviews the work. Thank You.
… (altro)
Questa recensione è stata segnalata da più utenti per violazione dei termini di servizio e non viene più visualizzata (mostra).
 
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MaryEDawson | 2 altre recensioni | May 20, 2013 |

Statistiche

Opere
1
Utenti
8
Popolarità
#1,038,911
Voto
5.0
Recensioni
3
ISBN
1