Monday, March 24, 2008

Tennyson Is Not A Poet!


Another weekend, another fantastic book! "Tennyson" by Lesley M.M. Blume is a book about eleven year old Tennyson and her sister Hattie who live in a bayou-like area with their unconventional parents. (Yes, Tennyson is a girl. Her mother, an aspiring author, named her after the famous poet.) Tennyson's mother has run off and her father pursues her, dumping the two children at the family's historic plantation with eccentric Aunt Henrietta and Uncle Twigs and grumpy Zulma. Tennyson writes a story of her family history during the Civil War and sends it to the "Sophisticate" magazine, hoping to lure her mother back home. This is great historical fiction with wonderful descriptions of how the elite lived before the war. Chandeliers in trees swaying in the wind, huge spiders spinning webs that will be covered in gold dust for a party, and the haunting feel of decay are just a few of the many images you'll carry around in your mind after reading this book. I truly hated to see this book end! Readers in fourth through eighth grade will devour this book! I just know you'll be seeing this book on an awards list soon.

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