A Northern Light

Donnelly, Jennifer. A northern light. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2003. Print.

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2003 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature
2003 Carnegie Medal
2004 Young Adult Library Services Association's top ten books for young adults
2004 The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature Honor Book

Annotation: Mattie Gokey is a sixteen year old girl in 1906 with a dream of leaving her poor community and becoming a writer. In order to make her dream come true, she takes a job at a hotel where a young woman drowns under mysterious circumstances.

Book talk: “It’s just past ten o’clock. The dawn came and the sun rose on a flawless summer morning. I am standing, frightened, but resolved on the train platform in Old Forge.

Is there a word for that? Feeling scared of what’s to come but eager for it, too? Terricipatation? Joybodenous? Feager? If there is, I mean to find it.” (p. 376)

Mattie Gokey has a word for everything – and when she can’t find a word to describe how she is feeling, she makes one up. Mattie loves words and longs to write. She has been accepted at Barnard College but wonders how she will leave her family – who need her – or find the money to attend school.

So she takes a job a local hotel to provide some extra money for her family and potentially save for college. However, a young woman drowns on the lake and Mattie is unexpectedly tangled in her death. Based on a true story, A Northern Light will delight fans of historical fiction and murder mysteries alike. A true treasure!

ISBN: 0152167056

Subject Headings: Education – fiction, Farm life-New York (state) – fiction, Murder – fiction, New York (state)-history-20^th century – fiction