Falling From Grace,Used

Product DescriptionIn a small Arkansas town in the 1930s, thirteenyearold Cassie Hill's griefstricken sister leaves town, her father becomes overly friendly with the new preacher's wife, and her Sunday School teacher causes trouble, but Cassie finds comfort in her new friendship with a quiet boy from Hungary.From Publishers WeeklyA steely yet sensitive teen comes of age in tiny Prohibitionera Prosper, Ark., in this often promising first novel. As the story begins, the narrator, 13yearold Cassie, is waiting for her parents to discover that her older sister, Adra, has just run away; meantime, she has to go to Sunday school, where she gets punished by the teacher for her unorthodox response to a question. Exiled from class, she helps her older brother, Jake, dye the water in the baptistery blueAand spies her father kissing the preacher's glamorous wife. McNichols juggles many plot lines: Adra's boyfriend has killed himself for reasons that emerge slowly, if vaguely; Adra's disappearance prompts nasty gossip; Cassie finds a boyfriend in the almost impossibly honorable Jan, son of a Hungarian immigrant family, and she defies her neighbors' bigotry and xenophobia to stand by him. The cast battles tragedy and cruelty, including a senseless death from bootleg moonshine and a dramatic dodge of a Klan attack. Not all the characters are onstage long enough for the impact of their struggles or suffering to hit home with readers, and Cassie's sudden embrace of a nemesis at the end is unconvincing and gratuitous. For the most part, however, Cassie proves a keen observer of the thorny, sometimes oppressive intricacies of smalltown life and of family dynamics everywhere. Ages 10up. (Sept.)Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.From School Library JournalGrade 69"Sunday weighs on a person like a heavy coat in March," begins Cassie, 13, the narrator of this distinguished first novel set in the late 1920s. Her sister Audra left on a Sunday, escaping the gossip that runs rife in the small town of Prosper, AR, after her boyfriend killed himself. Even more disturbing, Cassie catches her father calling the minister's wife "darling" as they discuss missing their weekly rendezvous. Added to her turmoil is her budding friendship with a Hungarian immigrant boy. She finds herself becoming Jan's protector and only friend, especially when her own brother, Jake, wants to fight him, both for being foreign and for liking her. When Jan helps Jake try to save his friend from the effects of drinking bad alcohol, the two boys declare a truce and together with Cassie rescue the town drunk from an unwarranted attack by the Ku Klux Klan. Cassie is a strong character, struggling to find her place in a town where she does not quite fit and trying to understand the behavior of the adults around her. Her changing relationships provide a portrait of the turmoil faced by many girls growing up and her decision to be herself rather than let others influence her shows her triumph of spirit and will. With this dynamic novel, McNichols captures the essence of living in the rural South of the notsodistant past.Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.From BooklistGr. 610. In Arkansas during Prohibition, contemplative yet gutsy 13yearold Cassie is burdened by two secrets: her sister has run away, and her father is having an affair with the preacher's wife. Her sister's disappearance ignites speculation from the whole town, but only Cassie knows of her father's tryst, which is complicated by the fact that the pretty, young preacher's wife is one of the few congenial adults in the rigid Arkansas town. On top of that, Cassie finds her own perceptions of love shifting when she develops romantic feelings for a kindly Hungarian boy named Jan. McNichols' first novel soars with fascinating characters, especially multidimensional Cassie. Whether snapping sharptongued reto