I Am Lavina Cumming - Softcover

Lowell, Susan/miroc

3.76

113 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0915943778 ISBN 13: 9780915943777

Publisher: MILKWEED EDITIONS *, 1997

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Ten-year-old Lavina Cumming has always lived with her father, mother, and five brothers on the Bosque Ranch in Arizona Territory. But when her mother dies, Lavina must go and live with her aunt in California. Set in 1905, Lavina's story of homesickness and starting a new life is told with truth and an uncommon richness of detail. A Hungry Mind Children's Books of Distinction Award winner.

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About the Author:

Susan Lowell's family has lived in the American West since Gold Rush days. She is the author of several picture books for children, including The Three Little Javelinas, a Reading Rainbow Book, The Bookmaker and the Elves, winner of a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America, and Cindy Ellen: A Wild Western Cinderella, also winner of a Spur Award. Her novels for older children are I Am Lavina Cumming and The Boy with the Paper Wings. She and her husband and their two daughters divide their time between Tucson, AZ, and a ranch near the Mexican border.
Contributor residences (city, state or country if outside the US or Canada): Tuscon, AZ

From Publishers Weekly:

This ambitious first title in the Milkweed for Young Readers line introduces Lavina Cumming of the Bosque Ranch, Arizona Territory. At the turn of the century, the 10-year-old heroine must, at her father's insistence, leave her motherless home to travel alone to her aunt in Santa Cruz, Calif., where she will learn to become a lady. Although she misses her family and the wild freedom of their ranch, Lavina gradually comes to value the new experiences afforded by her aunt's household--even though that household includes "awful Aggie," a self- proclaimed precocious fourth grader. Lavina is both likable and believable, her credibility enhanced by the author's skillful use of period details, and her story is ripe with dramatic opportunities. Lowell ( The Three Little Javelinas ) weaves in tales passed down through Lavina's family, but these remain tangential, sometimes detracting from the main focus. Lavina learns that her father was married to someone else before meeting her mother, and although it rattles Lavina's trust in her father, the issue is dropped. Aside from these troubles, Lowell's work is hardy, graceful and certainly authentic: the real-life Lavina Cumming, whose journals, letters and diaries provided the story's foundation, is Lowell's grandmother. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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