Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt and Terry Bregy

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Across Five Aprils
Available from Amazon
Price: $34.16
Updated on 12-28-2008.

Features

Audio CD: 6 pages

Publisher: Audio Bookshelf; Unabridged edition (January 2002)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1883332753

ISBN-13: 978-1883332754

Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.5 x 1 inches

Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces ()

From Publishers Weekly
Narrator Terry Bregy adopts an appropriately boyish tone for his reading of Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt, a Newbery Honor Book in 1965. Bregy compels readers to hear young Jethro Creighton's account of how the horrifying events of the Civil War changed life on his family's Illinois farm, even so many miles from the front lines. (Feb.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-Irene Hunt's Civil War novel (Berkley Pub., 1986) takes listeners from the first shots fired at Fort Sumter to Lincoln's assassination as seen through the eyes of a Southern Illinois farm boy. Jethro Creighton is nine when his close knit family learns that hostilities have broken out. As numerous male relatives go off to fight for the North and the South, and after his father falls ill, young Jethro takes responsibility for the family farm. With help from an older sister and neighboring farmers, he copes with attacks from local vigilantes, and he makes mature choices about a cousin who has deserted the army. Hunt artfully transforms her grandfather's childhood experiences into a powerful story of family love and the challenges of war. He also weaves a great deal of historical information into this Newbery Honor Book, and adds a generous measure of old-fashioned country wisdom as well. Terry Bregy provides a reliable, low key narration of the descriptive text. Cassettes and case are sturdy and well marked, with simple, but effective cover art. Recorded Books' audiobook of Across Five Aprils (March 2002, p. 85) is narrated by Tom Stechschulte whose voice has a stronger regional sound and provides more distinctive voices. Audio Bookshelf's version, also available in CD format, is strengthened by placing a valuable author's note at the beginning of the story. Either recording of Across Five Aprils will be a valuable addition to libraries where nonprint material on the Civil War is needed.
Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library. Rocky Hill, CT
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Across Five Aprils (Paperback) I read Across Five Aprils along with my own son and the 8th graders I teach as part of a unit on the Civil War. Ms. Hunt does a wonderful job of drawing her characters, particularly Jethro Creighton. Jethro and his family, farming in southern Illinois, find that even though they are not in the midst of the battlefields, their lives are nonetheless swept up in the events of this tragic period in our history. Jethro's growth and understanding of the sweep of history as well as of himself are well-detailed. Well they might be, as Ms. Hunt crafted this story from family stories of her great-grandfather, who was the young protagonist, making this novel something between historical fiction and family lore. She deftly weaves the family events with historic fact, adding faces to the stories in the history texts. As a midwestern gal myself, I found the perspective of a family from that part of the country to be very interesting. Many other similar works make their settings much closer to the historical action, and it is this unique setting that allows the reader to understand just how all-encompassing the Civil War was for the whole country. I found the last few chapters to be disappointing, as she seemed to want to rush to the end of the war and hence her story. The writing took on a feeling of newspaper reports of battles, with very little of the narrative from the Creighton family viewpoint that made the book so engrossing. As a teacher, I feel that the authentic dialect that was used in the dialogue might make for somewhat difficult reading for many kids who struggle with involved text. Nonetheless, a book such as Across Five Aprils makes for a much more interesting and meaningful study of the Civil War than the dry texts we read and forgot.

Across Five Aprils
List Price: $44.95
Available from Amazon
Price: $34.16
Updated on 12-28-2008.