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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J Fic Levine, E. 2005 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | J FICTION LEVINE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Jamie is like most girls in the 1950s--she loves Hollywood movie stars and practicing her yoyo moves. But unlike those other girls, she has something to hide, a secret that is hurting her family. Jamie's father is a member of the Communist Party, and in 1953, that's the worst thing you can be. Senator Joseph McCarthy and his committee are throwing Americans in jail if they refuse to reveal the names of other Communists, and Jamie's dad won't. He's not a rat.
When the truth comes out, and her dad loses his job, Jamie is ashamed to show her face in school. She's thrown off the school paper with no explanation, and all of a sudden Jamie knows how her father feels. Is there anything she can do to help her father? And what about herself?
Author Notes
Ellen Levine was born in New York City on March 9, 1939. She received a master's degree in political science from the University of Chicago and a law degree from New York University School of Law. She was an attorney for a public-interest law group, a documentary filmmaker, and taught courses in writing for children and young adults in Vermont College's MFA program.
She wrote numerous books for children and young adults during her lifetime including Darkness Over Denmark, I Hate English, Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Stories, Rachel Carson: A Twentieth-Century Life, and Henry's Freedom Box. She died from lung cancer on May 26, 2012 at the age of 73.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-8-From an author well known for her nonfiction on social and political issues comes a historical novel that explores a frightening yet important event in U.S. history: McCarthyism and the Red Scare. Jamie Morse, 13, lives in the Bronx in 1953. She loves Hollywood movie stars, the Dodgers, and practicing her yo-yo moves. But unlike most kids, she has a big secret. Her father is a member of the Communist Party. She never invites her friends to her apartment, and she lies to the FBI when asked what newspapers her parents read. Jamie's parents are portrayed as political leftists who want economic and social justice. Her father, a high school math teacher, is called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refuses to reveal the names of other Communists. He is sent to jail. Her mother also loses her job, bullies at school chase her brother, and Jamie is thrown off the school newspaper with no explanation. Levine portrays well Jamie's confusion, fear, anxiety, shame, and anger at her parents, yet her love for them. The times are captured perfectly, from Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the movies to the Rosenbergs' execution and the politics of fear. Jamie is a likable and believable heroine who grows into her own beliefs. Kids may well relate to the pervasive fear of the early 1950s as it resonates in our post-9/11 world.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
At the height of McCarthyism, Jamie's left-leaning parents are accused of Communist sympathies. When a teacher reacts by kicking Jamie off the school newspaper, she decides to fight the system. Though none of its characters leap off the page, this well-structured novel provides an excellent overview of a tumultuous period of American history. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
To most young people, the McCarthy era is a sidebar in a history text. Levine makes the story personal for one 13-year-old girl, one family, one school and community. She brilliantly portrays how the paranoia of McCarthyism undermined community life: teachers fired, books removed from public libraries, fights on the playground--not in Nazi Germany or Czarist Russia, but in New York City in 1953, shortly after the Rosenberg trial. In such a climate, young Jamie Morse feels the need to keep her mouth shut, her family's leftist politics secret, because "you don't want to stand out when you've got secrets." Angry that her parents' political leanings make it difficult to fit in at school, Jamie witnesses her father's defiance of Senator Joseph McCarthy himself and for the first time feels proud. Ultimately, this is a fast-paced story that transcends its era to be all about facing down bullies, large and small, and should send a message about contemporary politics. (note to the reader, suggested reading) (Fiction. 10+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-8. Levine's excellent nonfiction works--among them, Freedom's Children (1992)--tell social and political history through the experiences of young people. In her first novel, which is set in the early 1950s at the height of the McCarthy witch hunts, she brings the politics up close through the voice of 13-year-old Jamie Morse, whose Dad is fired from his job and tried as a Communist. Jamie is sick of politics. She's furious with her parents, and she hates all the family secrets. She just wants to have fun with her best friend. Yet, she knows that politics is more than rhetoric, especially when it comes to civil rights issues and the hurt caused by the n-word. Some of the plot is purposive (a classroom discussion on freedom of expression), but the characters are drawn without reverence, and the scary history and the crucial debate will grab readers, especially given the sharp dialogue. Tension mounts to the very end: Will Dad name names? What is worse, dissent or betrayal? The warmth, sadness, and anger humanize the issues, which are sure to spark discussion about the meaning of patriotism--then and now. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2005 Booklist