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Running Out of Night
Author:
Lovejoy, Sharon
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Class:
Fiction
Age: 8-12
Language: English
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LC: PZ7.L956
Grade: 3-7
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ISBN-13: 9780385744096
LCCN: 2013026375
Imprint: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Delacorte Press
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Pub Date: 11/11/2014
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $16.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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287 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
H 8.56",
W 5.88",
D 1",
0.925 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Children
Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 12th ed.
Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 13th ed.
Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 14th ed.
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Awards:
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Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
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Starred Reviews:
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TIPS Subjects:
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Historical Fiction
Social Issues
Diversity & Multicultural
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Historical / United States / Colonial & Revolutionary Periods
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Prejudice & Racism
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Runaways
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LC Subjects:
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African Americans, Fiction
Friendship, Fiction
Fugitive slaves, Fiction
Race relations, Fiction
Runaways, Fiction
Virginia, History, 1775-1865, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
African Americans, Fiction
Friendship, Fiction
Fugitive slaves, Fiction
Race relations, Fiction
Runaway children, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
5.3
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Points: 9.0
Lexile Level:
830
Reading Counts Level:
5.4
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Points: 15.0
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles | 11/01/2014 |
| A nameless Southern girl joins a runaway slave to escape her cruel father and brothers, joining another slave as the three search for the Underground Railroad. When the slaves are captured during a raid, the Southern girl, named Lark by slave Zenobia, must find a way to save them. 304pp. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 11/01/2014 |
| Grades 4-7. When Zenobia, a young runaway, turns up on the porch of her father's northern Virginia cabin, a neglected and abused 12-year-old white girl takes the slave in and hides her until they can both flee. Zenobia becomes the first friend Lark ever had. Joined by a third young runaway, Brightwell, they make their way down Catoctin Creek toward Waterford, where they hope to find help in the Quaker community. They're captured but escape from slave hunters only to narrowly escape Lark's father. Even inside Auntie Theodate's house in Waterford they're not safe. Lark tells this suspenseful story in her own distinctive, believable voice, her strong dialect indicated through dropped endings and consistent errors in grammar--no apostrophes get in the reader's way. Tiny chapter-opening sayings add atmosphere. What stands out most is the author's depiction of the rural Virginia setting. Lark's knowledge of the natural world leads to a satisfying, nonviolent resolution. An Underground Railroad story with a distinctive flavor. Isaacs, Kathleen. 304p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2014. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 01/01/2015 |
| R. Gr. 5-7. Battered and abused by her father and brothers, a twelve-year-old girl, nameless since birth, finally decides to run away after discovering a fugitive slave hiding on her family's farm in 1858 Virginia. Zenobia, the slave, names the girl Lark, and the two set off in the night, pursued by vicious slave traders and Lark's sadistic father and brothers. The forest is far from friendly, with poisonous snakes and flooding rivers, and a narrow escape from their trackers temporarily separates the girls, but they eventually find each other and safety in a nearby Quaker town, a known stop on the Underground Railroad. Unfortunately, the stop is also known to the slave traders, who show up in the dead of night and kidnap Zenobia, another slave, and the Quaker woman who helped them; Lark must therefore turn South-and back toward the home she thought she left behind-to save them. An author's note points toward Lovejoy's careful research, and she paints a raw picture of the casual violence that slavery entailed-the scene in which the traders read out a list of runaway slaves described primarily by their scars and injuries is particularly telling. While the book parallels Zenobia's and Lark's abusive situations, it's also aware that Lark's color and privilege give her possibilities that remain closed to Zenobia. Lark's folksy, rural dialect might initially challenge some readers, but the voice lends an authenticity to the tale and makes for an immersive experience, especially with Lark's vivid descriptions of the Virginian wilderness. Cliffhanger endings for nearly every chapter prove that adventure tropes can work just as well in historical fiction to keep the pages turning, and a happy but bittersweet conclusion ensures that both girls finally find safety. KQG. 285p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2015. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 05/01/2015 |
| 4. In 1858, twelve-year-old Girl, white, lower-class, and abused, flees her Virginia home and travels toward Quaker Waterford with runaway slaves. As she befriends the slaves, first-person narrator Girl (renamed Lark) astutely differentiates between her own subjugation and that of black slaves. Unfortunately, several characters' near-miraculous recoveries from escape-related injuries undermine an otherwise head-on look at multiple forms of enslavement. Websites. Bib., glos. rf. 289pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2015. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 10/01/2014 |
| Lively characterization and an intimate portrait of the natural world enrich this tale of an abused white girl in antebellum Virginia who shelters, then joins an enslaved runaway in search of freedom. Known only as "girl" to Pa and her brothers, the narrator leads a life that makes Cinderella's seem like a sinecure. Joining Zenobia, who's seen her own family separated and sold, isn't a hard call. Their journey, closely pursued by Pa and others determined to find the runaway and collect the large reward, is harrowing--also empowering. Life as a drudge has given Lark, as Zenobia names her, the practical skill set they'll need to evade thunderstorms, copperheads and slave hunters, among other antagonists. They find allies, too: other runaways and an abolitionist Quaker community. Lark's vivid and compelling, her dialect convincing. Lovejoy's sometimes-quirky knowledge of local history and extraordinary gift for writing about nature flavor the story, lending authenticity to Lark's closely observed world and informing the ingenious plot. One issue is troubling: Readers are invited throughout to compare the girls, to see Lark's pre-escape life as no better than slavery, an analog to it. While suggesting equivalency might help white readers identify with black characters, this device subtly downplays the enormous differences in their statuses in a society whose economy, laws and culture rested on those differences. Lush, detailed, total-immersion storytelling. (author note, glossary) (Historical fiction. 9-12). 304pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 09/29/2014 |
| Ages 9-12. Inspired by her ancestors' letters, nonfiction author Lovejoy (The Little Green Island with a Little Red House) sets her first novel in antebellum Virginia as she follows two girls seeking their freedom--one from slavery, the other from her family. Ever since the death of her mother during childbirth, the narrator, now 12, has been abused and denied a name by her Pa (she later becomes known as Lark for her birdlike whistle). After Lark helps to hide Zenobia, a runaway slave (who Lark's Pa and brothers are hunting for), the girls decide to run off together. On the danger-filled trek east toward the Quaker village of Watertown, the girls take turns rescuing and aiding each other, meeting another runaway slave, a boy named Brightwell, as well as Auntie Theodate, who runs a safe house. Written in a believably rough-edged dialect (a glossary is included) and distinguished by lively descriptions and dialogue, Lovejoy's story offers a tense account of the perils facing those who sought freedom in the lead-up to the Civil War. (Nov.). 304p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2014. |
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| School Library Journal | 08/01/2014 |
| Gr 4-7. Gr 4-7--When Zenobia, a fugitive slave, creeps onto the porch of an 1858 Virginia home, the white girl inside schemes to prevent her abusive father from spotting the escapee. Denied a name and mistreated by her motherless family, the girl quickly concludes that her circumstances look little better than plucky Zenobia's and the two resolve to flee together. Neither one has a route planned; still, equipped with determination, good-luck charms, and a prodigious amount of plot-finagling by Lovejoy, they continually elude the passel of slave catchers and incensed family members chasing them. Narrator Lark (her new friend gifts her the name) and Zenobia, joined by an older teen slave, aim for the Quaker town of Waterford, where Lark believes folks will aid in their escape. Throughout the somewhat haltingly paced tribulations they encounter--the town proves vulnerable to the one-dimensional villains trailing the group and illness or injury strikes all three--Lark displays a charming resolve to survive as a trio, an attitude most audiences will find winning, if unlikely and possibly ill-advised. The rural, mid-19th-century dialect, coupled with the author's interest in ethnobotany, roots the story deeply in the houses, forests, gardens, and even streambeds of antebellum Virginia; Lark's knowledge of plants allows for a satisfying, flora-induced revenge on one slave runner. Unfortunately, a contrived showdown tidies away the rest of the menacing trackers and the abrupt ending feels a mite cheery for the reality of a poor, newly orphaned girl and two fugitive slaves who haven't even made it out of Virginia. Some readers will suspend their disbelief, however, to enjoy the triumph of these intrepid souls. Robbin E. Friedman, Chappaqua Library, NY. 304p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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9780385744096,dl.it[0].title
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