The Christmas Promise - Hardcover

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590984519 ISBN 13: 9780590984515

Publisher: Blue Sky Press, 2001

Synopsis

A young girl and her out-of-work father ride the rails during the Great Depression looking for a place to call home, but with Christmas approaching and no job, Poppa leaves her in a foster home, promising to return as soon as he can.

About this title

About the Author:

SUSAN CAMPBELL BARTOLETTI's Hitler Youth was named a Newbery Honor Book, and Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 was awarded the Robert F. Sibert Medal. Ms. Bartoletti lives with her family in Moscow, Pennsylvania.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 2-4-Set sometime during the Great Depression, this story begins when a young girl and her father become homeless. Out of a job and money, they hop trains, riding from town to town, searching for "someplace good." The hardships of hobo life are conveyed both in Bartoletti's text and in Christiana's stylized gray- and brown-toned illustrations. Finally the father must leave his daughter with a kind woman who will care for her while he continues his search for work. The young girl's hopes and prayers for her Poppa are fulfilled on the last page as readers see him returning to her with packages on Christmas Eve. Although many young children have little awareness of the 1930s, this story will speak both to the homeless children of the 21st century and to those children of plenty, who might come to understand the pain of those without. A prefatory note describes the unique hobo communication system involving chalk figures depicted on the endpapers. Except for the textual references, these curious symbols do not appear in the story itself. A very different, and definitely not sugarcoated, Christmas tale.-G. C.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blue Sky Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0590984519
• ISBN 13: 9780590984515
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Christiana David