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Darkness Under The Water (2008)

by Beth Kanell(Favorite Author)

3.44 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

076363719X (ISBN13: 9780763637194)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Candlewick Press

review 1: The book skews the reality of the Vermont Eugenics and does a disservice to the truth of such Eugenics Program's intentions and reality at the time the Program was in operation in New England. Much could be said about this book but Judy Dow and Nancy Gallagher have said it far better than I ever could have. Its a so-so book. As an Abenaki descendant on my mother's father's male ancestral lineage there in Vermont, whose ancestors were targeted by, harassed by the Vermont Eugenics woman Ms. Harriett Abbott all the way across three states here in New England I have to ask a simple question. Why is we have to have someone who is non-Abenaki tell the public our history as an Abenaki descendant people? Esspecially in 2008-2009 !! I wouldn't let my 12 year old niece read this boo... morek nor my 62 year old Aunt either.
review 2: Beth Kanell's The Darkness Under the Water is the coming of age story of Molly Ballou, an Abenaki teenager living in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont in the 1920's, just as the dams were being put in to provide hydroelectric power. I was motivated to read this book because I know and admire Beth as a writer, I have worked in St. Johnsbury for the past 25 summers and know the Northeast Kingdom, and because I knew little about the Vermont Eugenics Project. What made this book so excellent was that it is not a polemic or issue book, despite the historical background. Instead, Molly's first person account is a loving, innocent, and inspiring account of what life in the 1920's meant to a young girl. Her challenges were both universal (young love, hard work, accepting authority) and situational (being Abenaki in Vermont, giving up a home to the dam's arrrival). What Beth Kanell is able to do as a writer is to weave those situational challenges into the universal narrative so that novel as a whole develops rich symbolism and becomes uplifting and cathartic for the reader. The Darkness Under the Water is a very successful novel, and I will be recommending it to my students at Waring School, especially to the Core - Group 1 students who travel to Canada through Vermont. less

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