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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Holm, J. 2001 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Sixteen-year-old Jane Peck has ventured to the unknown wilds of the Northwest to wed her childhood idol, William Baldt. But her impeccable training at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia is hardly preparation for the colorful characters and crude life that await her in Washington Territory.
Thrown upon her wits in the wild, Jane must determine for herself whether she is truly proper Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia, faultless young lady and fiancee, or Boston Jane, as the Chinook dub her, fearless and loyal woman of the frontier.
An exciting new novel from Jennifer L. Holm, author of the Newbery Honor Book Our Only May Amelia.
Author Notes
After graduating from Dickinson College, Jennifer L. Holm became a broadcast producer of television commercials and music videos for numerous companies including Nickelodeon, MTV, American Express, Hershey's and Huggies. Her first book, Our Only May Amelia, was a 2000 Newbery Honor Book. Both Penny from Heaven and Turtle in Paradise were Newbery Honor recipients in 2007 and 2011, respectively. She is also the author of numerous series including Boston Jane, Babymouse, and The Stink Files, which she writes with her husband Jonathan Hamel. Her title, The Fourteenth Goldfish made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-10-Jennifer Holm's adventure story (HarperCollins, 2001) features a mid-19th century girl who grows from an 11-year-old tomboy, to a proper young lady in her mid-teens, and to an accomplishedDalbeit self-consciousDyoung woman who is able to withstand physical, emotional, spiritual, and social hardships. As the only child and only family of a Philadelphia doctor, Jane is first diverted from her natural course, which tends toward indulging in cherry pies and rough-housing with local boys, by the shame heaped on her by a snooty neighbor girl. Jane enrolls in Miss Hepplewhite's ridiculously pompous and airless "school" to improve her etiquette, embroidery skills and, ultimately, marriageability. Jane is in love with William, the young man who is interning with her father. When he heads West, Jane's heart goes with him. Several years later, in answer to his marriage proposal, Jane takes a four-month sail to reach William in the Pacific Northwest. During the trip, Mary, the servant girl, dies. When she arrives, William is away, and Jane finds a ragtag community of white male settlers (called "Boston" people by the natives) and Chinook Indians. In addition to enduring the tortures of frontier living, the teasing of the white men, and the cultural misunderstandings that impede her friendships with the Chinooks, Jane is haunted by Mary. Jessalyn Gilsig reads Jane's first person narrative with just the right amount of sprightliness and sardonic self revelation. The novel is littered with plot twists, foreshadowing, and purposefully one-dimensional characters. Jane's strength gives it substance, lifting her above the clutter of adventures in a literary, as well as a storied, manner.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
With a bright, effective reading, Gilsig fits neatly into the role of Jane Peck, a young woman in transition in the year 1854. Jane has worked hard to adhere to the rules of The Young Lady's Confidante, her textbook at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia. Her accomplishments in embroidery, drawing and coffee pouring have earned Jane her father's dismay and her teacher's respect. But when she follows her heart after a young man who has gone to stake a claim to land in the Oregon frontier, Jane quickly learns that her ladylike skills may not be the most handy. A grueling passage by ship lands Jane in Shoalwater Bay, an area from which her betrothed has temporarily moved on. As she awaits his return, Jane must befriend the rough men who have come to seek their fortunes as well as the "savages" or Chinook Indians who are an invaluable source of help. Survival becomes more important than etiquette and Jane finds herself doing many things not befitting a "proper lady." In her narration, Gilsig adroitly changes tone from tentative to indignant to confident, depicting Jane's transformation from frail and ineffectual to robust and vibrant. Young listeners will find much to like in Gilsig's interpretation of this winning adventure. Ages 9-12. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School) Holm follows her success with Our Only May Amelia with another spunky first-person female protagonist, Miss Jane Peck, who transforms herself from a hoyden to a refined young lady at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy, then follows her fiancT to the Oregon frontier, where conditions are rather more primitive than she had expected. The shipboard death of her companion Mary is immediately followed by a farcical and somewhat strident account of Jane's attempts to practice ""Etiquette, Embroidery, Watercolors, Music, and...Conversational French"" among the rough frontiersmen and native Chinook tribe members, creating an odd mismatch between story and tone remedied only slightly by the return of Mary's ghost to haunt the guilt-ridden Jane. Holm based her story on the diaries of James G. Swan, an early settler in the Washington Territory who observed the Chinook and recorded their way of life. Predictably, ""Boston Jane"" sheds her useless refinements and adapts to the realities of the frontier with the help of the Chinook and Mr. Swan, having a great many scrapes and trials along the way, but she is an endearing heroine, naively confiding points of etiquette to those around her and eventually having the sense to let her repressive fianc+ go in favor of Jehu, the scarred sailor who has loved her since the voyage out. Readers who enjoy adventures in the Charlotte Doyle tradition will forgive the uneven telling and enter into Boston Jane's predicament. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
It's etiquette versus exigency in 19th-century Washington Territory. Jane Peck wasn't always a lady; until the age of 11, she was the very picture of a hoyden, terrorizing the neighborhood with rotten apples and manure pats. But prodded by the censure of the ladylike Sally Biddle, and with the encouragement of her physician father's apprentice, William of the dazzling smile, she enrolls in Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy. In the space of four years, she goes from being an independent and opinionated, if messy, girl to a very proper young lady, much to the dismay of her independent and opinionated Papa. But when she sails from Philadelphia to Shoalwater Bay to join William, she finds that he has gone, and she must make a place for herself among rough mountain men and the Chinook Indians, none of whom give a hoot for the accomplishments of a young lady. Holm (Our Only May Amelia, 1999) gives readers an original, likable narrator in Jane and a good-humored, rip-roaring romantic adventure, with colorful secondary characters to spare. These include Mr. James Swan, who left his family in Boston to pursue anthropological study (an actual historical figure), and the blue-eyed Jehu, the sailor who encourages Jane to revise her notion of proper young ladyhood. A couple of subplots are left hanging or seem out of place: the obvious decline in Jane's father's health goes unresolved, and the introduction of the ghost of Jane's traveling companion does little to further the plot. An unfortunately young-looking cover illustration will limit the usefulness of this otherwise highly enjoyable historical romp. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-8. The author of Our Only May Amelia (1999) offers another intrepid heroine in this appealing historical novel. Motherless Jane Peck has grown up as a tomboy with her father in 1850s Philadelphia. At the urging of her father's apprentice, William, on whom Jane develops a crush, she begins attending Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy, where she studies etiquette, embroidery, and the management of servants in the hope of becoming the sort of woman of whom William will be proud. Later, despite her father's protests, she travels halfway around the world to Shoalwater Bay in Washington Territory to marry William. Unfortunately, her betrothed is nowhere to be found, forcing Jane to bunk with a motley assortment of traders and adventurers while she spends her meager funds tracking down wandering Will. She quickly learns that her finishing-school skills are useless on the frontier, and much of the story's humor derives from Jane's determined efforts to reconcile the precepts she has been taught with the demanding realities of pioneer life. Strong characterizations, meticulous attention to historical details (especially concerning the Chinook Indians), and a perceptive understanding of human nature make this a first-rate story not to be missed. --Kay Weisman