Maggie's Door

September 1, 2003
Listeners can now hear what became of Nory, star of Nory Ryan's Song, in Patricia Reilly Giff's follow-up to that book, Maggie's Door, skillfully performed by Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan. In moving passages that also document elements of Irish and Irish-American history, Nory and her neighbor Sean give separate accounts of their long and dangerous voyage to New York City from the Emerald Isle. Flanagan's subtle, authentic accent is a treat.

September 1, 2003
Gr 4-8-Fans of Nory Ryan's Song (Delacorte, 2000) will not want to miss this sequel. It begins as Nory leaves her home in Ireland a few days behind her friend Sean Red Mallon, his mother, and Nory's four-year-old brother, Patch, to embark on their journey to America. In alternating stories, Nory and Sean relate their distressing experiences as they make their way toward Nory's sister's house in Brooklyn. Both characters face trickery, cruelty, starvation, filthy conditions, and storms at sea, but they are determined to reach their destination. The theme is one of courage and hope for the future. The characters are developed fully, revealing their determination and courage, as well as their fears. Both Nory and Sean grow as individuals as they face each obstacle to their final goal. The mood of anticipation and apprehension is sustained as readers travel with them toward Maggie's door. Giff's descriptive language and detailed descriptions enable children to visualize the countryside and events along the way. Factual information on the potato blight and the resulting emigration is explained in an afterword. A welcome addition to any historical-fiction collection.-Margaret R. Tassia, Millersville University, PA

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2003
Gr. 3-6. In this sequel to " Nory Ryan's Song" (2000), Nory and some of her family and neighbors, driven from home by the starvation and disease of the Irish potato famine in the 1840s, try to reach the coast of Galway and then sail across the sea to join their families in America. Children unfamiliar with the first book may sometimes find it difficult to keep track of who's who here, especially since the story is told in the alternating narratives of Nory and her close friend, Sean, both of whom care for each other's relatives as well as their own. What is absolutely riveting is the harsh realism of the "coffin ships": the crammed quarters, the hunger and brutality; the terror of a storm at sea; the strange sense of community and the hope. Giff brings the immigration history to life through the heartbreaking experiences of parting, loss, and, sometimes, thrilling reunion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2004
Gr. 4-7. In 1870, 13-year-old Dina is forced to flee Germany after being mistaken for a spy, and she takes her sister's place on a ship to America, where she will live with Uncle, his young wife, Barbara, and baby Marie. After arriving, Dina finds herself in Brooklyn, sleeping in a stifling closet. Worst of all, she must earn her room and board by sewing. Although talented, Dina despises the work, but sewing is part of Uncle's plan to improve their situation, so Dina finds herself either at the machine or doing the endless work of a tenement life. There are many books about immigrants in the U.S; the strengths of this one are its profuse details and its cranky heroine. And a heroine Dina is, sometimes exaggeratedly so, as when she saves both Barbara and Marie from a fire. Yet, Dina is not a stock character; she's a real child, who works hard, literally and figuratively, to find her way. When she realizes that designing dresses is something she loves, readers will cheer her perseverance, and the happy ending seems well deserved.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

August 25, 2003
Beginning where Nory Ryan's Song left off, this harrowing survival tale follows the journeys of Nory and her friend Sean. Alternate chapters tell two separate but equally grim accounts of hardships and loss, as the children travel on foot to a ship bound for America. Sean, waylaid by an errand (with the promise of food as repayment), loses sight of his traveling companions, his mother and Nory's younger brother, Patch. Without a ticket to board the Samson, he must find another way to gain passage. Meanwhile, Nory, who trails far behind her loved ones, is further delayed when she injures her foot and is robbed by a desperate child. Despite its grittiness, the novel succeeds in evoking a sense of hope as characters rely on their resourcefulness both to stay alive and to reach their destination. Giff strategically places strokes of good fortune so that readers are never submerged into bleak depths for too long a period. The thief who steals Nory's food, for instance, also provides her with a much-needed walking stick; Sean lands a job as cook's assistant on the Samson. Although the tedious walk to the ship may seem to readers nearly as long as the 40-day trip across the Atlantic, the book consistently expresses the children's strength and courage—which eventually leads them to one another and, later, to Maggie's door in Brooklyn. The protagonists' arrival in New York marks a new chapter in their life, hinting that another sequel may be in the works. Ages 8-12.

January 1, 2004
At the end of "Nory Ryan's Song", Nory is trying to meet up with her family so they can all sail to America. This book alternates between the story of Nory's journey and that of her friend Sean, traveling with Nory's little brother. Giff uses vivid language and precisely detailed observation to convey experience and emotion. Nory and Sean's trip, complete by story's end, is just the beginning of a new and different type of journey.

(Copyright 2004 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)