From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7. Iris Anderson, 13, loves her family farm in the Green Mountains of Vermont and hopes that she will never have to leave it. She only wishes that her father would realize that she and not her older brother, Lucien, should carry on the legacy of farming this land. Lucien has already made it clear to their father that he wants to be a writer, not a farmer, creating continual tension between the two. When the barn burns down and their father is seriously injured in a logging accident, it looks as though the farm will have to be sold. The Andersons grow closer together as they struggle with their individual pain and that of their close relatives. Fortunately, an alternative to drastic action is eventually found, and both Iris and her brother are able to look forward to pursuing their dreams. This is a powerful and beautifully written story of love and determination set during the 1950s. The characters are complex and believable, especially the appealing young heroine. The author masterfully captures the gamut of Iris's feelings from passion for the land and compassion for a classmate whose family is homeless to hatred for her cousin who caused the fire. As Iris works through these emotions, she is able to forgive her cousin, reach out to her classmate, and appreciate that being with her family is more important than holding on to the land. This brief, finely crafted novel will stay with readers long after the story ends.?Carol Schene, Taunton Public Schools, MACopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Gr. 5^-8. Iris, 13, feels deeply rooted on the family farm in northern Vermont and wants to spend all her life there. Her father plans for her older brother, Lucien, to take over the farm. Lucien just wants to get out of there. The family conflict is transformed when catastrophe strikes: someone sets the barn on fire, Iris' father loses his leg when a tree falls on him, and the farm must be sold. The plot is somewhat contrived (especially the last-minute happy ending that saves the farm for Iris), and the minor characters are flat (including the bossy, interfering aunt and Iris' friend, who remains a cipher); but the immediate family is drawn with real complexity, especially Iris and her brother, whose tense relationship changes gradually from hostility to respect. Most moving is Iris' quiet, lyrical, first-person narrative, which expresses her closeness to the land and her sense of freedom in taking care of a farm her parents and grandparents had lived on and worked and handed down. Hazel Rochman


From Kirkus Reviews
The profound pleasure of living on a farm, in constant contact with the natural world, pervades this story of a Vermont farm family whose luck turns, then turns again. Unlike her older brother, Lucien, who wants to be a writer, Iris, 13, can't imagine being anything but a farmer. After a year that begins with her grandfather's death and culminates in double disaster when the barn burns down and her father, Hazen, loses a leg cutting lumber for the new barn, Iris is ready to soldier on, but Hazen isn't; he angrily announces that he's calling it quits and puts the machinery and livestock up for auction. Kinsey- Warnock (The Summer of Stanley, p. 723, etc.) draws characters and conflicts simply and strongly, balancing a Pollyanna-ish subplot about a classmate who lives in a house made of hay bales with a hilarious comeuppance of bossy Aunt Lurdine; also figuring in the story are Iris's inner struggle when she learns that a cousin caused the barn fire and her sharp, almost fierce appreciation for the land and its gifts. Hazen conquers his depression, and Sturgis, his businessman brother-in-law who is a farmer at heart, comes in as co-owner to save the farm. The Christmas scene that caps this is almost overkill, but there's plenty of appeal in this sometimes surprising story. (Fiction. 10-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Thirteen-year-old Iris won't give up her family farm in northern Vermont-not without a fight. Unlike her brother, Lucien, who can't wait to get out, Iris feels deeply and happily rooted. Then, tragedy strikes. With a burned-down barn and a father who may be permanently injured, Iris's world topples. If Lucien takes over the farm, it will ruin his dreams of college and being a writer. But if Lucien leaves, Iris's parents will have to sell the property. Will Iris be forced to give up everything she loves?

Awards:

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Master List
An American Bookseller Pick of the Lists

Kinsey-Warnock draws characters and conflicts simply and strongly. (Kirkus Reviews)

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature