A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly
Young Adult, 2003 (Printz Honor Book)
In this sweet story that takes place during 1906, Mattie Gokey lives in upstate New York, caring for her family after her mother has passed away. More than anything she'd like to go to college to learn more about literature. She reads voraciously and always has a word of the day she pulls out of the dictionary. At the same time, a young girl is found drowned in the local lake, and Mattie feels very conscious of the letters this girl asked her to burn - would reading them help solve the mystery of who the man with her was? With friends like Weaver, Minnie, her teacher, and even Royal, she learns a lot about what she really wants out of life - even if it isn't the easiest way.
I absolutely loved this book. It was very well written; some sentences just tasted so good you had to read them again. There are a few thematic scenes (i.e. discovering just who is getting the local widow with seven kids pregnant over and over, saying no to Royal despite his advances, Minnie's birth of twins and subsequent meltdown...) that are not appropriate for too young of an age, although for the most part I don't think a teenager from today would sit down long enough to read a slower book like this. Graded an A-.
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