Family Reminders

August 1, 2009
Gr 3-6-Mining for gold in 1890s Cripple Creek, CO, is dangerous, yet it's the way of life for the frontier families who call it home. When 10-year-old Mary McHugh's father loses his leg in a mining accident, their peaceful existence is destroyed. The once-jovial man becomes sullen and depressed when he can no longer support his family, and Mary's mother grapples with trying to make ends meet while keeping her subservient role in the household. Mary's dad has always carved wooden "Reminders" of the family and their special times, and these carvings bring both pain and comfort to the child. The story alternates between the present and past as Mary remembers happier times. She tries desperately to remind her family members of them as she schemes for a way for her father to support them again. Shelley's India ink and pen illustrations add to the historical feel of this gentle, yet gripping story. This is a heartwarming novel about overcoming hardship, but it may need to be booktalked or read to children, who may not discover this little gem on their own."Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2010
Mary's father is despondent after losing his leg in a mining accident. Mary's mother does her best, taking in laundry and refusing to give in to despair, but it's Mary (a character based on Danneberg's grandmother) who rescues the situation. Cartoony illustrations are a mismatch for the heartfelt text, but readers won't need them to see into Mary's world.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2009
When Mary's cheerful, loving father loses a leg in an accident at the gold mine, he is despondent: no more jokes, rousing evenings at the piano, or artful whittling of the figurines he calls "Reminders" of the good times in their lives. Mary's strong, down-to-earth mother does her best, taking in other miners' laundry and refusing to give in to despair. But it's Mary who rescues the situation, proving to her father that he is not a "one-legged miner who carves" but instead a "one-legged artist who used to mine." Although this slender book for younger readers is based on the life of the author's grandmother in 1890s Cripple Creek, Colorado, it doesn't lean too heavily on its historical fiction classification -- we don't learn about the operation of a gold mine or follow every step in the late-nineteenth-century clothes-washing process. Young readers will instead identify with Mary's unhappiness at the changes in her father and her family, with her worries about money, and with her determination to help. (Because Mary's age is left unspecified, the novel would also make a good choice for reluctant older-elementary readers.) The cartoony illustrations and staid brown cover are a mismatch for the heartfelt text, but readers won't need them to see into Mary's world.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)