Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River

By Lyda Phillips

El Campbell just wants to have fun over the summer between high school and college. She's in charge of several girls at a North Carolina summer camp, and El hopes they interfere with her as little as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595361722
• ISBN13: 9780595361724
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An obviously accomplished writer with a self-evident mastery of the storytelling arts

"Peace I Ask Of Thee, Oh River" by Lyda Phillips is the story of a young woman named El Campbell who had spent all of her childhood summers at Camp Nichia and who has now become a camp counselor. It's El's assignment to teach new cambers about Nichia's traditions and rituals, contests and classes - everything from how cabins are assigned to how friends are made. It was going to be the perfect capstone to El's life at Camp Nichia - until Tiffin, the troubled daughter of the state's governor, shows up and El's summer of perfection turns into a constant struggle with this very angry and out-of-control young girl. The first place winner of the 2006 Writer's Digest International Self-Published Books Awards in the category of Children's Fiction, "The Peace I Ask Of Thee, Oh River" is a superbly crafted novel which deftly addresses the issue of teenage depression, suicide and bullying. Journalist, novelist and screenwriter, Lyda Phillips is an obviously accomplished writer with a self-evident mastery of the storytelling arts and her novel should be a part of every school and community library collection of YA fiction.

Gloomwing Review

Sitting down and reading Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River took me back to my own summer camp experiences, most of which are good, though a few that I had to endure at a day camp aren't so pleasant. But no matter how distasteful my experiences were, they can't compare with the events that transpire in Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River. One of the things that I admire about Lyda Phillips's writing is that she brings out the inevitability of change, for good or bad. And Peace I Ask of Thee,Oh River reflects how events can unravel that forever altar the way a person interacts with the world, an inevitability that we all must accept and endure, no matter how much we'd prefer not to. Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River is about El Campbell and her first year as a counselor at a camp she has, up until the time of this story, visited as a camper. Things seem to be going great, and El is looking forward to a summer full of fun and adult antics. That is, until a troubled child named Tiffin shows up. What should have been a summer full of lighthearted cheer slowly tumbles into a nightmare that El wishes she could forget. The excellent writing style of Lyda Phillips continues to shine through. The story is well told, well crafted, and easy to read. And the only complaint that I can offer up is the short length of the novel. The book seems a bit over priced for 108 pages of story, though there is the option of buying an electronic version of the book. All in all, I think Peace I Ask of Thee, oh River is worth the price. And it's a book I'll gladly keep on my shelf. -David Hoffman for Gloomwing Magazine

A book that comes alive in your hands

With this intense and at times disturbing novel, Lyda Phillips once again showcases her talent for voice and bringing characters to life. Certainly the issues it addresses - everything from mental illness to the complexities of friendship to the horrors visited on teenagers given too much responsibility too young - are compelling. These elements are woven in with lighter ones, deftly portrayed without heavy-handedness or sinking into melodrama. But what really sets this book apart are the people, El and Tiffin in particular. From the first page, they are real. From that first page, you'll keep reading until their story has been told. And when you're done, some of them will haunt you.

Both exciting and thoughtful...a great read...an important book.

Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River Lyda Phillips iUniverse (ISBN: 0595361722, $10.95, Paperback) 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, Nebraska 68512 With Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River, Lyda Phillips proves that her recent novel, Mr. Touchdown, was no fluke. As crisp and wise and well-written as Mr. Touchdown, Peace I Ask of Thee also probes disturbing themes, weaving them in and through the comforting rhythms of everyday life. In fact, the rhythm of life at Camp Nichia is one of the reasons El Campbell had spent all of her childhood summers there. Now that she was finally a counselor, it was her turn to teach new campers about Nichia's traditions and rituals, contests and classes, how cabins were assigned and friends were made... In other words, it was going to be the perfect end-of-childhood summer. But it wasn't. Something happened, and instead of El changing her young charges' lives, one of them changes hers. A wealthy, powerful family deposits their troubled daughter, Tiffin, at the camp, and El's summer of perfection turns into an ongoing confrontation with one very angry, very unhappy young girl. It's not just that Tiffin won't cooperate with any of the rituals and traditions - which she won't - it's that she's weird! Really, deeply strange. So sometimes it's easier to just leave her alone. And that's exactly what El and the other girls do. Whenever possible. Eventually, El's unexamined, adolescent contempt for anybody different gives way to concern for her disturbed young charge. From that point on, she is in a race against time...trying to wake herself up from the soothing comforts of the cozily familiar, and see what is. Once again, Phillips has given us a strong young voice. Described as a "normal, healthy teenager," El finds herself dealing with things she doesn't understand, doesn't want, and can't ignore. Hers is the heroine's journey -- down, down, into the depths of her own soul; to make sense of madness, to find meaning at the heart of chaos. And best of all, the author takes us on that journey, without giving up one bit of the fun and romance and silliness and boredom, and the wonder of one's 18th summer. The tastes and sounds and smells of camp... songs and chores... goofy traditions...and the sweetness of a first summer love... Phillips' obvious love of nature, combined with her exceptional gift for description, let us hike and swim and shoot the rapids right along with El and her friends. This wonderful story, with its fast-moving plot and engaging characters, will be thought-provoking for readers of any age. It tackles such tough topics as mental illness and the cruelty often displayed by groups against individuals it fears, and it does so in a richly detailed, multi-textured world, as vibrantly alive to the reader as it is to El and her fellow campers. Susan Marya Baronoff Reviewer

A compelling and Well Written Novel

To effectively deal with difficult topics addressed to a teenage audience such as suicide, sibling grief, guilt, anger, rejection, abnormal behavior, denial, and bullying is no easy feat and it takes a certain amount of boldness and courage on the part of the author to pull it off. This is precisely what Lyda Phillips set out to accomplish with her recent novel, Peace I Ask of Thee Oh River, and she has acquitted herself admirably. Phillips recounts the story of a typical American 18-year old Eleanor or as she prefers to be called, El, who, as a counselor in a girls' summer camp in North Carolina meets up with a disturbed teenager, Tiffin Ramsey. Tiffin is the granddaughter of old Senator Joe Ramsey, who was a huge segregationist in the 1950s and she is also the daughter of Governor Cameron Ramsey, who has presidential aspirations. For six weeks during the summer months, the Ramseys will be campaigning and they are not very keen on having Tiffin trail along with them. Consequently, they have decided to enroll Tiffin in Camp Nichia, where they feel she would benefit from the camp experience. They have given specific instructions that she is not to have any special treatment and that the less the campers know about her the better. They have also indicated to the supervisor of the camp that Tiffin has some "minor" behavioral problems. This is a compelling and well written novel wherein the author proves to be adept at capturing a sense of place, as she depicts the "clickish" and sometimes cruel atmosphere of a girl's camp and the mistreatment of some of the campers by their peers; the "pressure-cooker passions, girls in love with each other, hating each other, torturing each other, making up legends, worshiping traditions, having crushes, and playing favorites." It is a story of painful emotions wherein an inexperienced 18-year old is forced to deal with a very disturbed young teenager that eventually proves to have a profound and lingering effect on her own psyche. Reflecting on her own behavior, El asks herself if she should she feel pity or protectiveness? This novel will certainly raise some very interesting questions. How do you deal with family tragedy and whom do you turn to for advice and help, particularly when you are only eighteen and inexperienced? Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures