Hope's Crossing

by Joan Elizabeth Goodman

Overview

They came from across Long Island Sound, Tories in search of plunder and ransom, bringing terror to Hope Wakeman's Connecticut home. The family is defenseless now that Father is away serving in General Washington's army. They can only watch as Noah Thomas and his crew strip the house of treasured belongings. And before she realizes what is happening, Hope finds herself a captive and a slave to Thomas's ill-tempered wife. Hope has one unlikely ally: Thomas's plucky mother is a different sort of Tory, one who sees beyond partisan divisions. Together the frail old woman and the girl set off in search of safety, on a journey that takes them from the tiny villages of Long Island to the bustling Tory stronghold of Manhattan. A map helps readers follow along on this journey, during which many astonishing things are revealed to Hope about herself and her companion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547349275
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/27/1998
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Lexile:	820L (what's this?)
File size:	317 KB
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Joan Elizabeth Goodman has written several novels of highly acclaimed historical fiction. She lives with her husband and their two children in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5-8When 12-year-old Hope's father leaves his family behind in answer to General Washington's summons, he admonishes her to be brave. They have no way of knowing that within days her courage will be severely tested. Late one night, their homestead is attacked by Loyalist raiders in search of her father. Not finding him, they take Hope instead and burn the place to the ground, setting a terror-stricken girl upon a difficult journey during which she is forced into a variety of roles simply to survive. Eventually, she and Mother Thomas, her captor's mother (who had been treated little better than Hope), escape together, eventually ending up in New York City, a Loyalist stronghold, where she pretends to be the woman's Loyalist granddaughter. After the elderly woman dies of smallpox and Hope becomes deathly ill but survives, she finds herself recuperating in the home of a Tory general. With the aid of a friend of Mother Thomas, the girl secretly flees the general's house and makes her way home. Hope exhibits tremendous resourcefulness and steadfastness. Because she meets so many kind, warmhearted people while living among the Tories, she learns that the enemy wears a very human face. This story is rich with the details of life during the Revolutionary War. The discussion of the treatment of smallpox, particularly the primitive inoculation practices of the time, do not often appear in young people's novels. While Hope's character lacks the emotional depth of some of Ann Rinaldi's protagonists, her adventures should be popular.Peggy Morgan, The Library Network, Southgate, MI

School Library Journal

In a historical novel that, in the wake of Goodman's Winter Hare (1996), seems tepid, Tory kidnappers bundle a Connecticut patriot's daughter over the Sound to Long Island, where she endures mistreatment before undertaking the arduous journey home. Seized in lieu of her father, away on business for General Washington, Hope escapes before she can be sold to a slave trader, and with her captor's aged mother, Maude, makes her way to a war-torn but bustling New York City. Unfortunately, bands of raiders have brought northbound travel to a standstill. Hope frets over the protracted delay, fearing her pursuers, but then smallpox strikes. Hope loses her dear companion, and almost dies herself; after a long convalescence in the care of a British officer's wife, she again escapes, and a crusty old suitor of Maude's sails her across enemy lines to a happy reunion with her family. Hope's path is smoothed by plenty of adult friends, plus a convenient stash of family silver to cover expenses, and neither Goodman's sketchy descriptions of Revolutionary Warþera New York, nor her characters, who are either types or quirky to the point of impenetrability, contribute to the sense of time and place; still, although she is not the most self-reliant of heroines, Hope faces and overcomes her own fearsþspecifically her terror of heightsþas well as physical hazards in the course of her journey back. (Fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews