The River Between Us

By Richard Peck

Book Overview

The year is 1861. Civil war is imminent and Tilly Pruitt's brother, Noah, is eager to go and fight on the side of the North. With her father long gone, Tilly, her sister, and their mother struggle to make ends meet and hold the dwindling Pruitt family together. Then one night a mysterious girl arrives on a steamboat bound for St. Louis. Delphine is unlike anyone the small river town has even seen. Mrs. Pruitt agrees to take Delphine and her dark, silent traveling companion in as boarders. No one in town knows what to make of the two strangers, and so the rumors fly. Is Delphine's companion a slave? Could they be spies for the South? Are the Pruitts traitors? A masterful tale of mystery and war, and a breathtaking portrait of the lifelong impact one person can have on another.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142403105
• ISBN13: 9780142403105
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

An excellent novel!

This is one of my favorite books. It's exciting, informative, and very interesting. I enjoyed the plot, the suprising ending, and all the little details. Delphine was probably my favorite character. Overall, I recommend this book to all historal fiction and Richard Peck fans. And to just about anyone else!

Plac,age

Peck has followed Mildred Taylor's "The Land" with another expose' of the exploitation of women of color by gentrified white men of the South up to the Civil War. It was a norm and secret that deserves unmasking for American children.But the book is so much more. Peck takes the reader on an road trip with a father and his sons by touring car in 1916 for a family reunion with elders. It is the elders' story told as teens experiencing Succession and the beginning of the Civil War in a region around the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. With this, Peck also brings in the cultural history of New Orleans. The artifacts and other markers for the time period are totally engrossing. Mystery and surprising revelations abound.It's a fascinating read by a master writer.

Could This Win the Newbery?

In The River between Us, Richard Peck has created a novel-long flashback, sandwiched between chapters spoken to us through the eyes of a young man travelling with his father to the town where his dad grew up. The flashback is the story of the young man?s grandmother, Tilly Pruitt, who lived in the small Mississippi River town of Grand Tower along with her brother Noah, her frail little sister Cass, and their mother. One day, their very normal, hardworking town is turned on end when two mysterious young ladies step off the riverboat. Tilly?s mom, in need of money and sheepishly curious about the girls, invites them to stay at their home, unknowingly inviting them into their lives forever. As the war comes closer to the river, the townspeople begin whispering about the girls?Delphine, a lovely, well-dressed, refined and precocious young lady from New Orleans and Calinda, Delphine?s mysterious black servant. It is Noah?s decision to join the army and Delphine?s stubbornness that causes Tilly to learn more about her relationship with her mother and her own ability to ?put some starch in her spine.? There is a great secret at work in this novel, and the reader knows it from the moment Delphine and Calinda enter the lives of the Pruitt family. What emerges is a story about family, friendship, disparity, courage, enchantment, mystery, and war. Peck?s writing is brilliant in that he is constantly teasing the reader with hints, practically inviting him/her to just go ahead and guess what?s going to happen. This book will remind readers that accidental moments can change the history of entire generations of people. With this novel, Richard Peck has sealed his place as one of THE best writer's of young adult fiction!

...a story of what is known and what is not known...

For all those who "dislike" historical fiction novels, ignore that label for this latest of Peck's writing sojourns. This story -told in a most convincing, compelling first person-narrative Peck's choice words, plots and characters leave the reader awash in the tumultous times prior and during the Civil War. Fabulously detailed backdrop + seamless integration of themes sweep the reader along in this haunting and memorable story that will not be forgotten.