Inglis, Lucy.
Crow Mountain.
Scholastic/Chicken House
2016 359p
$17.99
ISBN 978-0-545-90407-0
ms/hs
Realistic Fiction
VG-BN
The reader meets two English girls from different
time periods in this fictional account of parallel lives. Hope, the daughter of an environmental
scientist, begins her journey in contemporary times, and Emily,
a young girl on her way to an arranged marriage with a railroad heir, begins
her journey one hundred fifty years before Hope. The similarities between
the two are
engaging: both examine life in Montana, both meet young men who
intrigue them immensely, and both learn how to stand up for themselves
along their journeys. The
differences stand out as well! Hope’s
story is told for her by the author; Emily tells her story through her journal,
using second-person narration directed at
the man who saves her when her stagecoach falls through a bridge,
killing
everyone aboard except her.
One important contrast lies in the early lives of the men. Cal, the present-day cowboy,
has been unjustly accused of a hazing
incident that caused the death of a fellow teammate,
whereas
Nate, a former Civil War soldier, has been accused of
desertion after running away from his battalion in order to save his leg
from being amputated. The creative
weaving of the two stories keeps the reader engaged. Coincidentally, Hope finds Emily’s
journal and
reads it during her own isolation, when the vehicle in which she
and Cal
are riding crashes down through the same bridge. There are a few other
farfetched examples of coincidental events, but they will not deter the reader
from finding something magical in the stories’ plotlines, especially
in the descriptions of the budding relationship between Emily and Nate in their
isolated Montana cabin. Native
Americans, town sheriffs, and Hope’s mother and Cal’s father all add spice to
the plot. Conflicts abound, and the
reader will never be bored. There is
even a rock-‘em-sock-‘em ending that will
interest lovers of action and drama. This book has a bit of
sexual reference, which makes it more appropriate for high-school
libraries. in the U.S. However, the
intended audience might be middle school in the United Kingdom where this novel was first published. Fans of good love stories with a bit of
history thrown in will definitely jump aboard!
Summary: Hope is dragged along by her mother on an
adventure to Montana in contemporary life.
Emily was forced to face adversity in frontier America 150 years
ago. Their stories intersect when Hope
finds Emily’s diary and reads it at the same time she faces challenges of her
own.
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