Ever willing to lose herself in a book when she should be doing errands, Lucy is an irresistible teenager her lively narration and stubborn, slightly naive self-confidence (as well as a taste for colorful invective: ``Gol durn, rip-snortin' rumhole and cussed, dad-blamed, dag diggety, thundering pisspot,'' she storms) recall the narrator of Catherine, Called Birdy (1994), without seeming as anachronistic. It's a far cry from Massachusetts as her mother determinedly settles in, California rebelliously changes her name to Lucy and starts saving every penny for the trip back east. Arvella Whipple and her three children, Sierra, Butte, and 11-year-old California Morning, make a fresh start in Lucky Diggins, a town of mud, tents, and rough-hewn residents. The recent Newbery medalist plunks down two more strong-minded women, this time in an 1849 mining camp-a milieu far removed from the Middle Ages of her first novels, but not all that different when it comes to living standards. If (('gtm=off') const isAppRedirect = ('appRedirect') Ĭonst isAndroid = /Android/i.test(erAgent) Ĭonst isIphone = /iPhone|iPad|iPod/i.test(erAgent) Karen Cushman's other books include Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice.
Dispelling the idea that only men went there to seek their fortune, Cushman focuses on the women and families who created homes and towns from a harsh landscape. Newbery Award-winning author Karen Cushman paints a vivid picture of life in the gold fields. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple is her firsthand account of her struggles in a rough and tumble land. With each day, the homesick Lucy is more and more determined to take life into her own hands and return to New England. There are no books, no school-nothing but dust and drunken miners. Reaching California, the Whipples set up a crude boardinghouse, and Lucy is put to work washing, cleaning, and baking pies in the rough mining town of Lucky Diggins. Moving is the last thing the outspoken twelve-year-old, Lucy, wants to do.
In the summer of 1849, Lucy Whipple's mother packs up her household and her two young children, and leaves their home in Massachusetts for the gold fields of California.
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