All of Mattie Lyon's hopes and dreams are riding on her summer job at the Glennmore Hotel. She'll make enough money to go to college in the fall. She'll prove to her father that she is responsible. She'll learn how to survive in the sophisticated world beyond her dad's brokeback farm. But all her plans fall to pieces when a young woman turns up drowned in the lake. Only Mattie knows that her death is a murder.
An astonishing and heartbreaking story set in 1906, this novel will take its place beside To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, and other classics that hark back to times of lost innocence.
Winner of the Carnegie Medal
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Michael L. Printz Honor Book
Selected Audiobooks for Young Adults (American Library Association)
A+ Audiobook (VOYA)
Listen Up Award (Publishers Weekly)
Audiobooks Too Good to Miss (Capitol Choices)
Inspired by a famous 1906 murder, Donnelly provides an intriguing melodrama that also examines women's rights and racism. A murder has occurred, and what to do with the victim's letters is just one of many dilemmas left to 16-year-old Mattie. Hope Davis deftly handles Mattie's many emotions, ranging easily from elation to despair to desperate yearning. Mattie also has a decision to make, namely whether or not to accept a full scholarship to Barnard College or to stay and help her family. This is just the sort of situation guaranteed to inspire teenaged listeners to empathize with her and to win them over to her side. E.J.F. Winner of 2004 Newbery Honor Award, Winner of 2004 ALA/ YALSA Recording (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
