The Hungry Year

By Connie Brummel Crook

Book Overview

Twelve-year-old Kate has always had to be more responsible than other girls her age. Since her mother's death and her family's flight to Canada, Kate's father has relied on her to keep house and look after her younger twin brothers. In a new place with poor shelter and no help, Kate must grow up even faster.

It is 1787. After poor crops, with little food to spare, the winter is terribly harsh. Kate's father is forced farther and farther from their makeshift cabin to hunt for food. Then one day, he simply doesn't return. Can Kate fend off danger and protect her brothers? Can these three children survive the Hungry Year when thousands of others will die?

Desperate, Kate prays for help. It finally comes from a most unlikely source - but is it in time?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 077376206X
• ISBN13: 9780773762060
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.5" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 10 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8

Customer Reviews

An excellant historical novel.

Kate's mother died four years ago in childbirth, and just recently, her grandmother died as well. Then the family was forced to flee their comfortable Albany home for the wilderness of Canada, for in 1787, Loyalists were no longer welcome in the newly independent United States. Although she is just twelve years old, all the responsibility of keeping house and caring for the four-year-old twins, Ryan and Alex, falls to Kate. The new home their father builds for them in Canada is a far cry from the one they left behind. When their food runs low in the middle of winter, their father is forced to leave for a week to try and find supplies, leaving Kate alone with her brothers. How will they survive, isolated in the cold and lonely wilderness in a tiny makeshift cabin, when their food runs out? I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy historical fiction. It brings to life the struggles of Canada's early pioneers.