Strawberry Hill

by Mary Ann Hoberman Narrated by Cassandra Morris

Overview

Mary Ann Hoberman won the National Book Award for her sparkling poetry. Her debut novel Strawberry Hill stars 10-year-old Allie, a young Jewish girl living with her family during the Great Depression. Everyone is excited because dad has found a home to rent and the street sounds like a place filled with fun and adventure- Strawberry Hill. But Allie soon finds many challenges in her new home and works hard to overcome them.

Editorial Reviews

During most of her half-century writing career, Mary Ann Hoberman has awakened young minds with picture book poems about llamas in pajamas and non-praying praying mantises. Nimble, but quite unfrivolous, this Children's Poet Laureate authored the National Book Award–winning A House Is a House for Me as well as You Read to Me, I'll Read to You. Now she graces us with Strawberry Hill, her first novel. Like the woman who created her, ten-year-old protagonist Allie is enchanted by words. Her discovery that she and her family are moving to a rural locale known as Strawberry Hill lifts her anxiety and eases her transition to a new school and a new circle of friends.

Elizabeth Devereaux

Even if you didn't know that Mary Ann Hoberman is the current national children's poet laureate, with a shelf of distinguished picture books to her credit, you could tell from Strawberry Hill, her first novel, that you were in the hands of a seasoned writer. The restraint of her style is a tip-off that here is someone who knows how to bring detail and language into just the right balance to catch you up and pull you into the story…Hoberman maintains an exquisite balance between Allie's perspective and that of the adults around her, allowing for both a child's way of thinking and a polished narration.
—The New York Times

Kirkus Reviews

Ten-year-old Allie is beside herself when she learns that her family is moving far away from her best friend, Ruthie. When her family arrives at their new home, however, Allie begins to form new friendships immediately. There is Allie's favorite friend, the rich girl, Martha, who goes to Catholic school but plays with Allie in the afternoon. And then there is Mimi, who is Jewish like Allie, chubby and desperate for friendship; she attends Allie's school but has been held back in the third grade. Petty BFF politics take center stage as the three girls, along with a few peripheral characters, vacillate among loyalty, jealousy, friendship and rejection. Predictably and unrealistically, Mimi loses weight, improves her reading enough to get promoted to fourth grade with Allie's help and earns herself the overvalued title of Allie's official best friend. Minus the few passages and scenes that serve to establish the Great Depression-era setting, the story could have happened just about anywhere. Neither a great friendship saga nor a good choice for historical reading. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

From the Publisher

Praise for Strawberry Hill:
A New York Times Editor's Choice

* "Highly evocative... With story lines that are simple but never simplistic and perfectly crafted chapters in which the ordinary has the opportunity to become special." - Booklist (starred review)

"[Hoberman] knows how to bring detail and language into just the right balance...to pull you into the story." - New York Times

"Rich details bring the period to life...This is a gentle story with the sensibility of a novel written in an earlier time." - School Library Journal

"Allie's plight will be utterly relatable to contemporary readers and the resolution is both satisfying and realistic." - Publishers Weekly

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171023492
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	08/14/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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