Uncommonly smart, uncommonly strange, Hannah is determined to become a success
In the one-room schoolhouse at Chadds Ford, Hannah Bennett is a sensation. She is a whiz at math—so adept that she teaches the other students—but in reading, she is a flop. Give her a piece of poetry and she can tell you how many As, how many Es, how many Rs there are in it—but she cannot read a word. Her talent is amazing, but in this small town during the Great Depression, people think that girls will only use math for household budgeting.
All at once, everything changes for Hannah when she is invited to study math in the big city of Philadelphia. This illiterate farm girl will undertake the adventure of a lifetime, in hopes of winning a university scholarship. As long as she stays true to herself, there is nothing—not reading, writing, or the city of Philadelphia—that is beyond Hannah’s reach.
This ebook features a personal history by Adele Griffin including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s own collection.
**
From Publishers Weekly
Hannah, 13, loves math. In fact, she has "a gift for numbers." But it's 1934, and "math [is] more practical for boys," at least, that's what her teacher says. In her hometown of Chadds Ford, Pa., the most she can hope for is tutoring the younger students and invoicing all of her family's dairy accounts. Only her Granddad McNaughton recognizes the possibilities that Hannah's talent could offer her until Mrs. Theodora Ann Sweet waltzes in from Philadelphia to assess whether Hannah's school should be awarded money from the Wexler Foundation. Griffin (The Other Shepards) makes inventive use of a third-person narration to demonstrate Hannah's computer-like brain and quirky personality. Hannah sums up Mrs. Sweet as "seven suit buttons, eleven footsteps, and five syllables in her name. From bag to beret, Theodora Sweet seemed to be an odd-numbered, slant-sided sort of person"; and she meditates on her favorite number, 32, to try to clear her mind. She travels to Philadelphia to study and to try out for the Wexler Scholarship, but feels divided between math and home. The author remains true to Hannah's personality, laying out the ways in which her eccentricities inhibit her even as she wins over friends who see through to her strengths. Her friend Tru, for instance, offers soothing parting words to Hannah: "All it takes is one chum to make the world shrink to a comfortable size. Wouldn't you say?" Griffin leaves the conclusion realistically and satisfyingly ambiguous, but readers will feel confident that Hannah will come out on top. Ages 9-12.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-Life in Chadds Ford, PA, in 1934 agrees with 13-year-old Hannah. Full of energy, she helps out as much as she can on the family farm and then goes off to school where she struggles with reading. Her crusty, but beloved, grandfather recognizes her exceptional ability with numbers and encourages her to think about the world beyond the confines of her village. When a Philadelphia philanthropist visits her school, she spots Hannah's special talents and invites her to come to the city to study for a scholarship examination. Hannah's family considers the invitation out of the question, but with Granddad's support, she is soon on her way. There, Hannah is lonely and school life is difficult, but she manages to cope with the help of Joe, another young and feisty scholarship hopeful. When her grandfather dies unexpectedly, she is tempted to forget her dream and return home, but Griffin has created a character too determined and stubborn to take the easy path. Despite her increasing anxiety, which results in almost uncontrollable obsessive counting and tapping, she perseveres. This portrait of a child clearly struggling with the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder is sensitive and convincing. Hannah's fierce will enables her to control many of the outward manifestations of her condition, but readers can feel her daily struggle to keep her urges in check. Joe Elway provides a scrappy, refreshing alternative to Hannah's intensity. The contrast of city with country life, of warm, if sometimes contentious, family life with the lonely life of a boarder in a stranger's house, of friendship with people who have known you since birth with the disdain of new classmates, makes this a novel well worth savoring. Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
Uncommonly smart, uncommonly strange, Hannah is determined to become a success
In the one-room schoolhouse at Chadds Ford, Hannah Bennett is a sensation. She is a whiz at math—so adept that she teaches the other students—but in reading, she is a flop. Give her a piece of poetry and she can tell you how many As, how many Es, how many Rs there are in it—but she cannot read a word. Her talent is amazing, but in this small town during the Great Depression, people think that girls will only use math for household budgeting.
All at once, everything changes for Hannah when she is invited to study math in the big city of Philadelphia. This illiterate farm girl will undertake the adventure of a lifetime, in hopes of winning a university scholarship. As long as she stays true to herself, there is nothing—not reading, writing, or the city of Philadelphia—that is beyond Hannah’s reach.
This ebook features a personal history by Adele Griffin including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s own collection.
**
From Publishers Weekly
Hannah, 13, loves math. In fact, she has "a gift for numbers." But it's 1934, and "math [is] more practical for boys," at least, that's what her teacher says. In her hometown of Chadds Ford, Pa., the most she can hope for is tutoring the younger students and invoicing all of her family's dairy accounts. Only her Granddad McNaughton recognizes the possibilities that Hannah's talent could offer her until Mrs. Theodora Ann Sweet waltzes in from Philadelphia to assess whether Hannah's school should be awarded money from the Wexler Foundation. Griffin (The Other Shepards) makes inventive use of a third-person narration to demonstrate Hannah's computer-like brain and quirky personality. Hannah sums up Mrs. Sweet as "seven suit buttons, eleven footsteps, and five syllables in her name. From bag to beret, Theodora Sweet seemed to be an odd-numbered, slant-sided sort of person"; and she meditates on her favorite number, 32, to try to clear her mind. She travels to Philadelphia to study and to try out for the Wexler Scholarship, but feels divided between math and home. The author remains true to Hannah's personality, laying out the ways in which her eccentricities inhibit her even as she wins over friends who see through to her strengths. Her friend Tru, for instance, offers soothing parting words to Hannah: "All it takes is one chum to make the world shrink to a comfortable size. Wouldn't you say?" Griffin leaves the conclusion realistically and satisfyingly ambiguous, but readers will feel confident that Hannah will come out on top. Ages 9-12.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-Life in Chadds Ford, PA, in 1934 agrees with 13-year-old Hannah. Full of energy, she helps out as much as she can on the family farm and then goes off to school where she struggles with reading. Her crusty, but beloved, grandfather recognizes her exceptional ability with numbers and encourages her to think about the world beyond the confines of her village. When a Philadelphia philanthropist visits her school, she spots Hannah's special talents and invites her to come to the city to study for a scholarship examination. Hannah's family considers the invitation out of the question, but with Granddad's support, she is soon on her way. There, Hannah is lonely and school life is difficult, but she manages to cope with the help of Joe, another young and feisty scholarship hopeful. When her grandfather dies unexpectedly, she is tempted to forget her dream and return home, but Griffin has created a character too determined and stubborn to take the easy path. Despite her increasing anxiety, which results in almost uncontrollable obsessive counting and tapping, she perseveres. This portrait of a child clearly struggling with the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder is sensitive and convincing. Hannah's fierce will enables her to control many of the outward manifestations of her condition, but readers can feel her daily struggle to keep her urges in check. Joe Elway provides a scrappy, refreshing alternative to Hannah's intensity. The contrast of city with country life, of warm, if sometimes contentious, family life with the lonely life of a boarder in a stranger's house, of friendship with people who have known you since birth with the disdain of new classmates, makes this a novel well worth savoring.
Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.