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Holding Up The Earth (2000)

by Dianne E. Gray(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0618007032 (ISBN13: 9780618007035)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fiction

publisher

HMH Books for Young Readers

review 1: Shifting the point of view as Dianne Gray does in both Together Apart and Holding up the Earth is not my favorite literary technique, yet she manages it pretty well. In the latter, she actually switches between the voices of five different girls to bind together her story of fourteen-year-old Hope, a foster kid who has been shuffled from home to home since the death of her mom. Hope visits her new foster mom’s Nebraska farm and through old letters, a diary, and stories hears the voices of four girls her age who lived there in 1869, 1900, 1936, and 1960. Through their tales, readers are introduced to the life of pioneers and hired hands and of life during the dust bowl and later nuclear testing days. And through Hope’s voice, readers learn about farming and small towns,... more but also something more. May we always have memories that shape us, but may we also always move forward to make new ones. Dianne Gray has written a third book, and based on the strength of her first two books, I’ll be checking it out too.
review 2: This is a fascinating book. For everyone who enjoys reading about the past. Your family’s past. Several generations of diary reading are covered here. It has been fun to read how the author blended them together. Life on the prairie at its finest. Synopsis: it has been eight years since Hope’s mom died in a car accident. Eight years of shuffling from foster home to foster home. Eight years of trying to hold on to the memories that tether her to her mother. Now Sarah, Hope’s newest foster mom, has taken her from Minneapolis to spend the summer on the Nebraska farm where Sarah grew up. Little by little she starts to listen to the voices that are all around her on the farm and starts to accept this new family as her own. If you like geneology, you will love this. There are a lot of cool things that happen. You will enjoy tracing the past as it relates to the present. Good for ages 12 and up, but adults will enjoy too. A really fresh breath of air full of courage. less

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