Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

Starred review from June 15, 2009
Newbery Medalist Naylor's (Shiloh
) reflective, resonant novel shapes credible portraits of two Kentucky girls participating in a seventh-grade exchange program. Since her parents' house is too cramped, outspoken Ivy June lives nearby with her bighearted grandparents in aremote mountain hollow, with no indoor bathroom or phone. More reserved Catherine attends private school in Lexington, where she shares a rambling home with her family. In thoughtful, articulate journal entries interspersed with third-person chapters, the girls, who spend two weeks together with each family, share their initial expectations and subsequent impressions (“if Mammaw ever saw the stuff they put on our plates, she'd give it to a dog,” Ivy June writes about the cafeteria food). The bond between the girls strengthens when they simultaneously experience traumatic events (Ivy June's coal miner grandfather becomes trapped underground; Catherine's mother undergoes emergency heart surgery). Leaving the hollow, Catherine responds to a comment that she'll have a lot to tell when she arrives home: “To tell it's one thing.... To be here—that's something else.” Naylor's deft storytelling effortlessly transports readers to her Kentucky settings—and into two unexpectedly similar lives. Ages 9–12.

September 1, 2009
Gr 5-8-Naylor takes up the issues of crossing class lines with a solid portrayal of Ivy June from rural coal country in Kentucky staying with an upper-middle-class family for two weeks over spring break and the return visit of the daughter of that household, Catherine. The living situations of the seventh graders are at two extremes and yet both girls have the humanity and distinctness that allow them to escape the confines of representing their classes. Make no mistake, this is Ivy June's story, and her hardships and family challenges are front and center in a way that Catherine's own family woes are not. The exchange program set up by the schools is a perfect showcase for looking at the role of wealth and poverty in our assumptions about one another. Ivy June's discomfort at having the wrong shoes is comparable to Catherine's squirming at being unable to wash her hair daily. Neither manages to overcome her own class assumptions. Despite the challenges, this is a warm and tender story of learning to care about the needs of the "other" while gaining appreciation for your own values and strengths."Carol A. Edwards, Denver Public Library, CO"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2009
Grades 5-8 Ivy June Mosley and Catherine Combs are participating in the first-ever exchange program between their schools. Both are seventh-graders in Kentucky, but their worlds couldnt be more different: Ivy June lives with her grandparents in their mountain home without indoor plumbing or a telephone, while Catherine lives in a big house in Lexington and has her own cell phone.While spending two weeks in each others homes, thegirls record their observations in journals, and the well-chosen details and scenarios lend authenticity to the girls voices. Catherine is horrified to learn that she can only wash her hair once a week, for example. Jealous friends and a tactless grandmother add challenges, but two large events cement the girls relationship. Ivy June and Catherine are mature beyond their years, and a mine accident is too heavily foreshadowed, but both the settings and characters are described with affectionate nuance. Readers will connect to these engaging girls and celebrate as they learn they are more alike than different.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2010
Seventh graders Ivy June and Catherine participate in a student exchange program between the poor Kentucky mining town of Thunder Creek and the relatively well-to-do city of Lexington. Naylor hits the right notes for the relationships between the girls and community members. The setting is richly realized, and the differences between the two ways of life are illuminated with both realism and diplomacy.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2009
Seventh-graders Ivy June and Catherine each have an important job to do. They are the ambassadors for their respective Kentucky communities in a student exchange program between the poor mining town of Thunder Creek and the relatively well-to-do city of Lexington. Ivy June visits Lexington first, and most of the story is from her point of view. Many things surprise her, including the four bathrooms in Catherine's house and the way everyone continually hands out compliments at school. When Catherine visits Ivy June in Thunder Creek a few weeks later, she is surprised by the outhouse, and even more by not being able to wash her hair daily. Naylor as always hits the right notes for the relationship between the two girls and between each girl and the other members of the communities. Although the plot is predictable, including a much-foreshadowed disaster at the mine, the setting is richly realized, and the differences between the two ways of life are illuminated with both realism and diplomacy.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)