Twilight in Grace Falls (An Avon Camelot Book) - Softcover

Honeycutt, Natalie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380731282 ISBN 13: 9780380731282

Publisher: Avon Camelot, 1999

Synopsis

Witnessing the economic failure of her logging town home with the decline of the timber industry, eleven-year-old Dasie befriends Warren, who moves in with her family when his own moves away and who harbors dangerous depression levels. Reprint.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 6-10. Honeycutt beautifully captures life in a small, mill town in Oregon. The economy of Grace Falls has always centered around the lumber mill and the logging operations that support it. Times are changing, and the new economic reality disrupts the community and the lives of almost 12-year-old Dasie and her extended family. The usual small-town issues of community loyalty versus self-preservation are brilliantly woven into the characters' lives; especially those of Dasie's brother, Sam, who joins the Navy after graduation, and their cousin Warren, who drops out of school to become a logger. When the mill closes, the question of whether to leave or stay throws everyone into crisis. The Jensons have lived in the valley for several generations, but the security and stability provided by the mill no longer exists. Their parents expect that Dasie and Sam, as well as Warren, will leave after high school graduation for a better life elsewhere. This provides a measure of conflict in the novel, as Warren wants nothing more "than to stay and fall trees." Twilight gently unfolds through descriptive prose and realistic conversations among family members. Folksy dialogue overheard at Early's Saw Shop is interspersed throughout the novel, acting as a Greek chorus commenting on and highlighting the action. Readers in the Pacific northwest region will especially appreciate this richly textured novel set in an often-ignored paradise.?Lucinda Lockwood, Thomas Haney Secondary School, Maple Ridge, BC
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A fully realized world is created by Honeycutt (Whistle Home, 1993, etc.) in this well-written story of a mill town's economic demise. Dasie, 11, has good reason to be proud of her father, who works a dangerous job in the saw mill that is the source of the town's livelihood. He is also a volunteer fireman and a former ``faller,'' highly skilled in the treacherous job of cutting down enormous trees. He and his wife have always expected Dasie's brother, Sam, to leave town and its waning economy when he came of age, and so it is that he joins the Navy. This is ``worse than hard'' for Dasie's mother, and only the first in a series of drastic changes in their lives. The mill closes; Dasie deals with conflicting feelings for her beloved cousin, Warren--who seems to be stepping into Sam's ``place''; Warren, in the meantime, reveals his true, aimless nature and later drives his motorcycle into a tree. From the outset the story rings true. Dasie's mother once told her that in death, ``the only thing that counts is the kindness of understanding''; throughout, Dasie is the one who understands, bringing readers along with her. The vivid details of logging and small-town life read as if Honeycutt has seen, felt, and touched everything in Grace Falls, and then passed it on with poetic turns of phrasing, e.g., part of the cemetery, where Warren will ultimately be laid to rest, is ``lightly wooded, where grass was a sometime thing.'' (Fiction. 11-14) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Avon Camelot
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0380731282
• ISBN 13: 9780380731282
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 181