Holding Up the Earth - by Dianne E Gray (Paperback)

About the Book

It has been eight years since Hope's mom died in a car accident. Eight years of shuffling from foster home to foster home. Eight years of trying to hold on to the memories that tether her to her mother. Now Sarah, Hope's newest foster mom, has taken her from Minneapolis to spend the summer on the Nebraska farm where Sarah grew up. Hope is set adrift, anchored only by her ever-present and memory-heavy backpack. Accustomed to the clamor of city life, Hope is at first unsettled by the silence that descends over the farm each night. But listening deeply, she begins to hear the quiet: the crickets' chirp, the windsong, the steady in and out of her own breath. Soon the silence is replaced by voices, like echoes sounding across time -- the voices of girls who inhabited the old farmhouse before her. Reluctantly, Hope begins to stretch down roots in the earth and accept this new family as her own.

Book Synopsis

It has been eight years since Hope's mom died in a car accident. Eight years of shuffling from foster home to foster home. Eight years of trying to hold on to the memories that tether her to her mother. Now Sarah, Hope's newest foster mom, has taken her from Minneapolis to spend the summer on the Nebraska farm where Sarah grew up. Hope is set adrift, anchored only by her ever-present and memory-heavy backpack. Accustomed to the clamor of city life, Hope is at first unsettled by the silence that descends over the farm each night. But listening deeply, she begins to hear the quiet: the crickets' chirp, the windsong, the steady in and out of her own breath. Soon the silence is replaced by voices, like echoes sounding across time -- the voices of girls who inhabited the old farmhouse before her. Reluctantly, Hope begins to stretch down roots in the earth and accept this new family as her own.

Review Quotes

"The stories of five teenaged girls -- separated by decades, but joined by their love of a Nebraska farm -- are pieced together like a patchwork quilt in this first novel. . . . A carefully structured work full of recurring connections and patterns, peopled with strong female characters." --Horn Book (9-10/00) Horn Book "An excellent candidate for mother/daughter reading groups, Holding Up the Earth will become a collective memory for young teenage girls." --Kirkus Reviews (10/1/00) Kirkus Reviews School Library Journal (10/00) School Library Journal The Bulletin (11/00) The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "This highly recommended book can be read on many leavels -- historical, psychological, structural, or artistic. Each level is fascinating and fulfilling." --VOYA 4Q 3P (10/00) VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) "...powerful female protagonists...the concerns that connect them...make for gripping reading." -The Paperback Shelf Midwest Book Review --