Joy's Blog - The Light Across the River

• Mar. 2, 2009
The Light Across the River

The Light Across the River

By Stephanie Reed

Published by, Kregel Publications

Johnny Rankin and his family have a secret that not many people should know about. Johnny has a hard time keeping secrets, because of that his father has not let him help with the "family business".

On a freezing winter night, a slave arrived at the Rankin's house, in her weary arms she held her baby named Mose. The slave, Eliza, had runaway from her master's plantation and was trying to runaway to freedom. Mr. and Mrs. Rankin, and some of the older children of the Rankin family, woke up to help this poor slave and her baby. The Rankin's are used to having "unexpected guests" come to their house in the middle of the night. So it wasn't unusual to wake up and find a slave or two in their kitchen.

After a little while, Mr. Rankin went up to Johnny's room and told Johnny to go down to the kitchen. Johnny was half a wake when he saw Eliza and her baby sitting by the warm fire. At first he thought it was his mother holding her youngest child but, as he got closer he realized that he was looking at a real, live slave!

Will Johnny ever be able to help with his "family business"? Can Johnny keep it a secret? In order to find out you must read the book like I did. I highly recommend The Light Across the River. The Light Across the River is very exciting and full of adventures. Stephanie Reed did a great job with the historical facts. While I was reading this book I didn't even realize I was also learning about the Underground Railroad and the history of real families helping actual slaves to freedom!

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Comments

• Mar. 4, 2009
Awesome Book Review!

Posted by TroopersForChrist

Lovely job on your book review. I have one question, please look up the word 'a wake' tell me if that should be one word or two in the context of this sentence? Get back to me and let me know. I think it is one word but I would like you to look it up and show me what a 'reference book' says about it. Remind me to record this in your school schedule book with a grade.

Sincerely,
Mrs. D-Ig

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• Mar. 8, 2009
Book Review

Posted by Miss Kirsten

Dear Joy,
You continue to produce high quality book reviews that I am increasingly impressed with.
The first paragraph does a nice job of summarizing the main plot. The sentence structure is a bit choppy but you could probably fine tune that by eliminating the commas by rewording the paragraph into 2-3 separate sentences.
The second and third paragraphs of your essay introduce the book by giving a brief example of an important passage, an introduction to the Underground Railroad. This choice really helped me as a reader to visualize the main characters in my head. Excellent.
The third paragraph of your essay illustrates Johnny’s astonishment when he sees a real live slave. You illustrate Johnny’s character well in this segment.

The fourth paragraph starts out with leading questions that string the reader along – hopefully prompting him or her to check out the book from a local library. Lastly, you reflect upon what you have learned by reading this book. This is another great attribute of a well constructed book review.

Joy – You do a nice job of incorporating all the elements of style into your writing when you compose book reviews.

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