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This is a commonly Stocked Item
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| A Northern Light |
| Author(s): Donnelly, Jennifer |
| Edition: First Edition |
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| List Price: $9.99 |
| Format: Paperback (Trade Paperback) |
| Publisher: HMH Books |
| Imprint: HMH Books for Young Readers |
| ISBN: 0152053107 or 9780152053109 |
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| * Please call for availability |
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Descriptions and Reviews
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| Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has a word for every ... |
 | Sixteen-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.>hrhrhr
As I stand here on the porch of the Glenmore, the finest hotel on all of Big Moose Lake, I tell myself that today-Thursday, July 12, 1906-is such a day. Time has stopped, and the beauty and calm of this perfect afternoon will never end. The guests up from New York, all in their summer whites, will play croquet on the lawn forever. Old Mrs. Ellis will stay on the porch until the end of time, rapping her cane on the railing for more lemonade. The children of doctors and lawyers from Utica, Rome, and Syracuse will always run through the woods, laughing and shrieking, giddy from too much ice cream.
I believe these things. With all my heart. For I am good at telling myself lies.
Until Ada Bouchard comes out of the doorway and slips her hand into mine. And Mrs. Morrison, the manager's wife, walks right by us, pausing at the top of the steps. At any other time, she'd scorch our ears for standing idle; now she doesn't seem to even know we're here. Her arms cross over her chest. Her eyes, gray and troubled, fasten on the dock. And the steamer tied alongside it.
"That's the Zilpha, ain't it, Mattie?" Ada whispers. "They've been dragging the lake, ain't they?"
I squeeze her hand. "I don't think so. I think they were just looking along the shoreline. Cook says they probably got lost, that couple. Couldn't find their way back in the dark and spent the night under some pines, that's all."
"I'm scared, Mattie. Ain't you?"
I don't answer her. I'm not scared, not exactly, but I can't explain how I feel. Words fail me sometimes. I have read most every one in the Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language, but I still have trouble making them come when I want them to.
Right now I want a word that describes the feeling you get-a cold, sick feeling deep down inside-when you know something is happening that will change you, and you don't want it to, but you can't stop it. And you know, for the first time, for the very first time, that there will now be a before and an after, a was and a will be. And that you will never again be quite the same person you were.
I imagine it's the feeling Eve had as she bit into the apple. Or Hamlet when he saw his father's ghost. Or Jesus as a boy, right after someone sat him down and told him his pa wasn't a carpenter after all.
What is the word for that feeling? For knowledge and fear and loss all mixed together? Frisdom? Dreadnaciousness? Malbominance?
Standing on that porch, under that flawless sky, with bees buzzing lazily in the roses and a cardinal calling from the pines so sweet and clear, I tell myself that Ada is a nervous little hen, always worrying when there's no cause. Nothing bad can happen at the Glenmore, not on such a day as this.
And then I see Cook running up from the dock, ashen and breathless, her skirts in her hands, and I know that I am wrong.
"Mattie, open the parlor!" she shouts, heedless of the guests. "Quick, girl!"
I barely hear her. My eyes are on Mr. Crabb, the Zilpha's engineer. He is coming up the path carrying a young woman in his arms. Her head lolls against him like a broken flower. Water drips from her skirt.
"Oh, Mattie, look at her. Oh, jeezum, Mattie, look," Ada says, her hands twisting in her apron.
Sssh, Ada. She got soaked, that's all. They got lost on the lake and...and the boat tipped and they swam to shore and she...she must've fainted."
"Oh, dear Lord," Mrs. Morrison says, her hands coming up to her mouth.
"Mattie! Ada! Why are you standing there like a pair of jackasses?" Cook wheezes, heaving her bulky body up the steps. "Open the spare room, Mattie. The one off the parlor. Pull the shades and lay an old blanket on the bed. Ada, go fix a pot of coffee and some sandwiches. There's a ham and some chicken in the icebox. Shift yourselves!"
There are children in the parlor playing hide-and-seek. I chase them out and unlock the door to a small bedroom used by stage drivers or boat captains when the weather's too bad to travel. I realize I've forgotten the blanket and run back to the linen closet for it. I'm back in the room snapping it open over the bare ticking just as Mr. Crabb comes in. I've brought a pillow and a heavy quilt, too. She'll be chilled to the bone, having slept out all night in wet clothing.
Mr. Crabb lays her down on the bed. Cook stretches her legs out and tucks the pillow under her head. The Morrisons come in. Mr. Sperry, the Glenmore's owner, is right behind them. He stares at her, goes pale, and walks out again.
"I'll fetch a hot water bottle and some tea and...and brandy," I say, looking at Cook and then Mrs. Morrison and then a painting on the wall. Anywhere and everywhere but at the girl. "Should I do that? Should I get the brandy?"
"Hush, Mattie. It's too late for that," Cook says.
I make myself look at her then. Her eyes are dull and empty. Her skin has gone the yellow of muscatel wine. There is an ugly gash on he |
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More Descriptions and Reviews...
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Alternative Editions
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| A Northern Light; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, Listening Library (Audio) |
| A Northern Light; by Donnelly, Jennifer; HMH Books, HMH Books for Young Readers |
| A Northern Light; by Donnelly, Jennifer; HMH Books, Clarion Books |
| A Northern Light; by Donnelly, Jennifer; HMH Books, Clarion Books |
| A Northern Light (Borders edition); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, HMH Books for Young Readers |
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More Alternatives...
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Other Books by this Author
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| Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney Press, Disney Press |
| Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney Press, Disney Press |
| Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney Press, Disney Press |
| Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney Press, Disney Press |
| Hermanastra / Stepsister; by Donnelly, Jennifer; PRH Grupo Editorial, Molino |
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More Books by this Author...
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| Humble Pie; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Aladdin, Aladdin |
| Poisoned; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Scholastic Inc., Scholastic Press |
| Poisoned; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Scholastic Inc., Scholastic Inc. |
| Poisoned (Unabridged edition); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Scholastic Inc., Scholastic Audio Books |
| Revolution; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, Listening Library (Audio) |
| Revolution; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Random House Children's Books, Delacorte Books for Young Readers |
| Revolution; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Random House Children's Books, Ember |
| Revolution; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Random House Children's Books, Delacorte Books for Young Readers |
| Revolution; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Random House Children's Books, Delacorte Books for Young Readers |
| Stepsister; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Scholastic Inc., Scholastic Press |
| Stepsister; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Scholastic Inc., Scholastic Audio Books |
| Stepsister; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Scholastic Inc., Scholastic Inc. |
| The Tea Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; St. Martin's Publishing Group, St. Martin's Griffin |
| The Tea Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Paperbacks |
| The Tea Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; St. Martin's Publishing Group, Thomas Dunne Books |
| The Tea Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; HarperCollins, HarperCollins |
| These Shallow Graves; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Random House Children's Books, Delacorte Press |
| These Shallow Graves; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Random House Children's Books, Delacorte Press |
| These Shallow Graves; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, Listening Library (Audio) |
| These Shallow Graves; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Random House Children's Books, Ember |
| These Shallow Graves; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Random House Children's Books, Delacorte Press |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Four Sea Spell; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Four Sea Spell; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Four Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga, Book Four); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Four Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga, Book Four); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book One: Deep Blue; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, Listening Library (Audio) |
| Waterfire Saga, Book One Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, Book One); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book One Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, Book One); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book One Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, Book One); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book One Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, Book One); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Three: Dark Tide; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, Listening Library (Audio) |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Three Dark Tide; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Three Dark Tide; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Three Dark Tide (Waterfire Saga, Book Three); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Three Dark Tide (Waterfire Saga, Book Three); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Two: Rogue Wave; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, Listening Library (Audio) |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Two Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga, Book Two); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Two Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga, Book Two); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Two Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga, Book Two); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| Waterfire Saga, Book Two Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga, Book Two); by Donnelly, Jennifer; Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Hyperion |
| The Wild Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
| The Wild Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
| The Wild Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
| The Wild Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
| The Wild Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
| The Wild Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; HarperCollins, HarperCollins |
| The Winter Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
| The Winter Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hyperion, Hyperion |
| The Winter Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
| The Winter Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
| The Winter Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; HarperCollins Publishers, Harper |
| The Winter Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; HarperCollins, HarperCollins |
| The Winter Rose; by Donnelly, Jennifer; Hachette Books, Hachette Books |
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