Nory Ryan's Song

You are a great girl. These words of praise are Nory Ryan's anchor in the year her older sister leaves for America, her father fails to return home, the potatoes rot in the field, and her family relies on Nory for their existence. The 12-year-old's heavy burden becomes slightly more bearable through her relationship with Anna, a neighboring widow. Susan Lynch brings the pleasure of an Irish voice to the narration of an Irish story. As narrator, her voice is melodious. As character, she heightens the pathos of the times--the whine of young Patch as he begs for food, the desperation of Nory as she climbs for bird eggs on a cliff, the horror of Sean and Nory as they see streams of people coming to their beach to gather limpets and mussels, the conviction of Anna that she will be happy when her neighbors leave for America. The combination of Giff's story and Lynch's voice creates a memorable listening experience. A.R. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 2, 2002
"Giff meticulously re-creates the Great Hunger as she traces a 19th-century Irish girl's struggle to survive," PW
wrote. Ages 8-12.