It's Nothing to a Mountain - Hardcover

Hite, Sid

3.68

31 ratings by Goodreads

9780805027693: It's Nothing to a Mountain

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805027696 ISBN 13: 9780805027693

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1994

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Love, loss, and guardian angels are central to an adventure story about an unforgettable cavedweller in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains who survives everything from mudslides to loneliness. By the author of Dither Farm.

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 6-9-A story of loss and recovery, told within the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Lisette and Riley, whose parents have recently died, now live with their grandparents. Unable to bear the mourners and well wishers, the boy wanders off into the woods, where he takes a fall; his life is saved by Thorpe, a runaway who has been hiding from his abusive stepfather for over a year. Meanwhile, Lisette copes with her grief by embracing the spiritual comfort of Phyllis, a family friend. Spying on the family, Thorpe develops a crush on Lisette and saves her and a visiting schoolmate from a pair of beer-drinking teenagers. As his trust in Riley increases, he reveals that his mother is in prison for shooting his stepfather. Then a hurricane hits, causing a mudslide and sealing Thorpe inside his cave-home. After a miraculous escape, he washes up in the hot springs, where he is found and healed by Phyllis. Unfortunately, an interesting story and cast of characters are interrupted constantly by an omniscient narrator's smug and superior commentary. Geological detail on the formation of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the events of 1969 intrude on the narrative flow and make it drag. If the majesty of the mountains, which loom prominently over the tale, diminishes the plight of the humans, then why tell the story? The resolution of Thorpe's situation and the easing of Riley and Lisette's sadness amuse them, who in all "their hundreds of millions of years...had never witnessed a more satisfying moment in time."-Alice Casey Smith, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, Manalapan, NJ
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

The metaphysical atmosphere present in Hite's Dither Farm is more delicately evoked in this second novel, which also offers a cast of boldly defined characters and a great deal of adventure, including a death-defying underground journey. The year is 1969, but in the Sparkling River Valley, it could be any era. Living with her grandparents since her parents' untimely demise, Lisette Sutter ponders mysteries of life and death while her more practical brother, Riley, makes friends with a runaway boy, Thorpe, who is hiding out in a cave. As the story develops, Thorpe saves Riley's life, Riley becomes Thorpe's chief supplier of food and other necessities, and Lisette, who has only glimpsed Thorpe from a distance, becomes convinced that he is her guardian angel. Disasters strike simultaneously when Riley fails to deliver an important message, Lisette loses an invaluable memento and the entrance to Thorpe's cave is sealed by a landslide. A series of coincidences, possibly miracles, brings salvation to all characters and neatly ties together the tangled threads of the plot. Shaped by the author's philosophical digressions, archetypal renderings and appreciation for the absurd, this tale about mortality and immortality will most satisfy readers with a strong imagination and a contemplative nature. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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