missbradleys_bookcart 's review for:

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline

4.0

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Well... I didn't love it as much as Orphan Train BUT I did love much of how this novel was put together. First, I loved how she used the famous painting as inspiration and melded the fiction around it. I also loved how she mentioned classic literature and connected Nathaniel Hawthorne into storyline. I think these links are great ways to draw kids into other literature, especially some more challenging options that will stretch their thinking. The way that she organized the storytelling by switching from the present to the past was unique, kind of like Orphan Train and the telling of the two characters stories. I also loved the short story at the end of the novel that provided a look into her father and how he came to Maine, and the big White House on the hill. I think it could be a great read aloud as an introduction to Baker-Kline's writing and the editing process which created this story. There are many details that students could connect to: Christina's debilitating illness, her feelings of isolation, family relationships, love and failed relationships, loss of loved ones, adventure, fear of the unknown, and the historical tidbits of the witch trials, and the historical setting of both world wars. I am looking forward to Baker-Kline's next novel about the hidden history of women convicts, sent to an island off of Australia. I will wait not so patiently for that release.