Over the Water

By Maude Casey

Book Overview

Fourteen-year-old Mary feels like a misfit, both in England where she and her family live and in their former Ireland home, until a visit to her Irish relatives helps her gain a better understanding... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140375899
• ISBN13: 9780140375893
• Release Date: March 1996
• Publisher: Puffin
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 20.0" x 20.0" x 20.0"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

One of my favorite books

I first read this book in 5th grade, and since then I have read it many times. It sounds silly, but I think this book has helped me make the transition from elementary to middle, and now to high school. Not only can I relate to the character of Mary, but the emotions that I feel everytime I read the book are overwhelming. This book is honest, heartwarming, and bittersweet. While the themes are timeless and universal, the female point of view might be difficult for boys and men to understand. However, I absolutely recommend this book to everyone else, from young girls trying to find themselves, to women remembering what it was like to be a child.

This was a heart-wrenching story

What an incredible story! I have to be honest...I wasn't expecting much more from this book than a quick, easy read. Well, it was quick, because I couldn't put it down. Maude Casey's writing style, her descriptions of the setting and the characters caught me and swept me right into her story. It's about a teenager's struggle to fit in, when she doesn't feel as though she belongs in her parent's Ireland, or her adopted country, England. It's about clashes in Irish and British culture. It's about overprotective, at times abusive, parents, and teenage rebellion. It's about sibling rivalry, wanting to be an independent person, but also wanting and needing strong family ties, and searching for an understanding of who your parents are, as people...there was so much covered in such a small book...only 241 pages. I was in awe, and at times overwhelmed with how this "little book" caught my heart. I cried while I read this. Not little sniffles. I had to set the book down and bawl at a few points. The author was incredible, I FELT Mary's (the main character) desperation, and I felt her emotional revival as she begins to understand WHO her parents are, and what forces, what circumstances, made them who they are. By the way, I'm 25 years old, and read this book at the recommendation of another adult reader.

Breath Taking

I read this book as part of an application project for Honors 9 Geography. This book talked about the culture and customs of theses people, the way they lived, and what the land around them looked like. I enjoyed the way that the author wrote the book from a fourteen year old girls point of view. This made it easier for me to understand where she was coming from. I thought that it was interesting how the Irish do not care for the English or how the English do not care for the Irish. The authors presentation of the subject makes me feel angry that the Irish and the English could not get along, they should at least try. I feel that this book was written at my reading level. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to read a touching and an emotional story.

It thought is was a great book about an Irish girl, terrific

This book tells about a girl who who grew up in another country from her grandparents. She hated her mother, but by the end of teh book, she connected with her mother. I would recomend this book to anyone at it's reading level! This is a great book!

Magical writing and a bittersweet plot!

I have never read a book so qickly. I was absolutely touched by Mary's struggle with discovering her Irish self, and Maude Casey's wirting is so simple, yet so powerful, that I found myself crying when Mary cried, and laughing when she laughed. I reccommend this book to anyone who can read, and if you can't, get it on tape!