A Northern LightSixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has a word for everything, and big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can't write down in stories.The fresh pain of her mother's death. The burden of raising her sisters while her father struggles over his brokeback farm. The mad welter of feelings Mattie has for handsome but dull Royal Loomis, who says he wants to marry her. And the secret dreams that keep her going--visions of finishing high school, going to college in New York City, becoming a writer.Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from Big Moose Lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder.Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, this Printz Honor-winning coming-of-age novel effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original |
Contents
frac tious | 7 |
abe ce dar i an | 26 |
mis no mer | 48 |
som nif er ous | 58 |
un man | 68 |
wan | 84 |
plain tive | 98 |
xe roph i lous | 115 |
ico sa he dron | 239 |
ob strep er ous | 245 |
li mic o lous | 257 |
gray id | 265 |
sal tant | 276 |
aby | 282 |
fu ga cious | 296 |
thren o dy | 304 |
mono chro mat ic | 121 |
re cou ri um phor a tion | 141 |
fur tive | 160 |
ses qui pe da lian | 169 |
tott lish frowy blat meaching | 179 |
au gur | 185 |
glean | 193 |
de his cence | 206 |
mal e die tion | 218 |
ab scis sion | 222 |
his pid u lous | 227 |
con fab u late | 314 |
ide al | 328 |
a busion | 336 |
non pa reil | 338 |
do lor | 349 |
lep o rine | 354 |
ter gi ver sa tion | 363 |
lu cif er ous | 368 |
AUTHORS NOTE | 381 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 385 |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | 390 |
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Common terms and phrases
arms asked aunt Beth boat Brown called Chester coming Cook couldn't cows dear didn't dollars don't door Emmie eyes face father feel felt Fifty Fran gave girl give Glenmore gone Grace hands hard head hear heard hold hope inside It's Josie keep kitchen knew Lake land laughed leave letters live looked Loomis loved mamma Matt Mattie mean milk mind Minnie Miss Wilcox mother never night once picked pulled road Royal seen shouted sitting smiled standing started stay steps stop stories sure talk tell There's things thought told Tommy took trying turned Uncle voice wait walked Weaver week What's whole wondered woods write York
References to this book
From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges Between Young Adult Literature and ... Sarah K. Herz,Donald R. Gallo No preview available - 2005 |