I'll Sing You One-O

by Nan Gregory

Twelve-year-old Gemma doesn't know where to turn.She is being adopted by relatives she didn't know she had.The foster family she has loved all her life is breaking up.The farm where they've lived is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618607080
• ISBN13: 9780618607082
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 10 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 7

Customer Reviews

Sparkling, engrossing story

Preteen Gemm is being adopted by unknown relatives, the foster family she's lived all her life is breaking up, and Gemma wants her old life back. Her solution: to attract an angel to fix her world: her efforts to earn one result in a new probe into her past and the reasons behind her present dilemmas in a sparkling, engrossing story I'LL SING YOU ONE-O.

And one is one and all alone and ever more shall be-o

Some songs lodge in your brain more effectively than others. I can hear the National Anthem at every ballgame I attend, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be humming it on my way home. Songs I knew when I was a child, however, are immensely difficult to remove from one's mental rotation. I grew up loving the song "I'll Sing You One-O", and that love is now a curse. Now every time I pick up Nan Gregory's gripping story, I end up singing its title for hours on end. Talk about an effective marketing strategy! Now, I liked this book, yes indeed. No one is ever going to contest that this wasn't a smart novel. However, I had a very hard time getting through it due to how involved I felt in the heroine's story. It's an odd criticism, but "I'll Sing You One-O" is anything but an ordinary book. Love it or hate it, it packs a wallop. Gemma is now officially the world's most miserable child. I mean, how would you feel if some strangers swooped down and took you away from everyone and everything you ever loved? Since the age of four Gemma has lived on a foster care farm and she's grown incredibly close to the people and kids there. Now her aunt, uncle, and twin brother have tracked her down and they're taking her home with them. Gemma, needless to say, is desperately unhappy with this situation. She wants to save the foster farm from being sold and return to it, but the only thing she can really think to do is to call upon an angel to intervene. But how do you attract the attention of an angel? You do whatever you can. Problem is, Garnet has to deal with her own interior demons before she's ready to accept the world in which she finds herself. I enjoyed the subtlety with which Ms. Gregory was able to convey the social differences between the people Gemma grew up with and the family that takes her in. Though it's not said straight out until the end, the foster care farm that Gemma loves so much is run by hippie-like free-spirits. The Burdettes, in contrast, are of the upper middle-class set and think right from the start that they are "rescuing" Gemma from an untenable situation. Mrs. Burdette is the kind of woman who, when she sees her niece touch the polished dining room table in wonder, scrubs away the fingerprint with her sleeve. And right from that moment onward you know exactly the situation Gemma has fallen into, and you don't envy her one bit. The language also flows so easily. Garnet, Gemma's twin brother, is described as having, "Hansel-thin fingers". Gregory slips in little dabs of description here and there, putting together a story that a person really wants to hear. Yet at what point does an author emotional tug on the reader's heart become too effective? You see, I reached page 152 of this book and suddenly I didn't want to read another word. This was a huge problem for me. I literally did not want to pick up that book again and watch Gemma's heart get ripped out of her chest. Of course my worry was all for n