the ballad of lucy whipple karen cushman

Cushman's early honors were not just beginner's luck. ''The Ballad of Lucy Whipple'' does feature a young woman, but this time the setting is gold-rush California, and it's clear that Ms. It would make a fine trilogy at a time when historical fiction for girls is attractively packaged and marketed by series. Cushman's next novel to be more of the same: another story of a young woman coming of age in medieval England. With this kind of initial success, one might expect Ms. In ''The Midwife's Apprentice,'' a young woman with no given name rises from a dunghill to learn midwifery and to earn a proper name and self-respect. Catherine rails against a father who seeks a wealthy husband for her.

Both books portray young women struggling to establish their identities in an oppressive medieval society. Her second, ''The Midwife's Apprentice,'' won the 1996 Newbery Medal for Children's Literature. Her first novel, ''Catherine, Called Birdy,'' was named a 1995 Newbery Honor Book. Some very fine writers labor in obscurity for years with little or no recognition, but not Karen Cushman. (Aug.THE BALLAD OF LUCY WHIPPLE By Karen Cushman. The writing reflects her expert craftsmanship for example, Lucy's brother Butte, dead for lack of a doctor, is eulogized thus: ''He was eleven years old, could do his sums, and knew fifty words for liquor.'' A coming-of-age story rich with historical flavor. Here she also renders serious social issues through sharply etched portraits: a runaway slave who has no name of his own, a preacher with a congregation of one, a raggedy child whose arms are covered in bruises. As in her previous books, Newbery Award winner Cushman (The Midwife's Apprentice) proves herself a master at establishing atmosphere. Over years of toil and hardship, Lucy realizes, somewhat predictably, that home is wherever she makes one. California rebels by renaming herself Lucy and by hoarding the gold dust and money she earns baking dried apple and vinegar pies, saving up for a journey home. Her mother, a restless widow with an acid tongue, has uprooted her children from their home in Massachusetts to make a new life in Lucky Diggins. In a voice so heartbreakingly bitter that readers can taste her homesickness, California Morning Whipple describes her family's six-year stay in a small mining town during the Gold Rush.

The ballad of lucy whipple karen cushman