Monday, May 23, 2011

So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll by Barry Denenberg

 So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, An Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts 1847 (Dear America Series)





Title: So Far From Home: the Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847
Series: Dear America
Author: Barry Denenberg
Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Scholastic Inc     
Received: Purchased at Thrift Store
Release Date: 1997
Pages: 144
Rating:

What is it About?

A young Irish lass, named Mary Driscoll,  moves from Ireland to America during Ireland Potato Famine.   She works to gain money for her parents to also join her in America.

My Thoughts:

Mary Driscoll’s tale is a sad one indeed.  She leaves her parents to go to America.   As her parents starve she tries to save money for them. So they may  travel to America to meet her and her sister.   Mary works in a factory and instantly makes friends with another worker.  

I have only read two book in the Dear America series so far, one in the Princess series and this one.  It seems to me that the theme is to make the story heartbreaking and terrible to go through to make an interesting story.  Not to mention how it ends for dear Mary. I understand that this was probably realistic for some who came over during the Potato Famine  and because some of my family did just that I was interested in the story even though it is very dark.

I would say that it was an interesting read but at some times annoying because of the accent, which I don’t know if it was correctly done, Mary spoke in.   Something about the way she spoke did not seem believable yet the story did seem so other wise.


Website:

Dear America Series:
http://www.scholastic.com/dearamerica/

Barry Deneberg:
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