Lyddie

Quite often, we read books for young people where the main characters must lean to care for others and not just themselves-where the main character must break away from childhood egocentrism and emerge into the adult world. In Katherine Paterson's Lyddie, readers find the opposite theme: Learning to not lose oneself in the responsibilities of the adult world.

The novel follows Lydia Worthen, a teenager in 1840s Vermont. With her father gone to seek his fortune, Lyddie, with some help from her brother Charlie, must take charge of the family farm, her emotionally unstable mother, and her younger sisters. To cover the farm debt, Lyddie's mother leases the farm and sends her oldest children into forced servitude. After a year of misery working for a local tavern, Lyddie becomes a mill hand in Lowell, Massachusetts. While there, Lyddie's sole focus becomes earning the money to pay off the farm debt and reunite her family. Her hard work and single-mindedness earn her a reputation as a "skinflint" and "Amazon." It's only after the farm is sold, her youngest sister dies, her mother is sent to the asylum, her remaining siblings are adopted by another family, and her job is lost over fraudulent charges that Lyddie begins to look out for herself-that she begins to ask what she wants for herself.

While Lyddie is not Paterson's best work, the book does provide lively insight to factory life in Lowell, where many young women flocked in the early 1840s for economic opportunity. While readers are not thrown into the heart of the labor movement, we are able to see the conditions that led to organized labor: The long hours, the sexual harassment, the illness and disease resulting from mill work. Still, all of this background provides a fitting setting for the story of a young woman who must learn that she has more to offer the world than her back-breaking labor. If you've enjoyed Paterson's other works of historical fiction, Lyddie will not disappoint.

Fast shipping. Low price. The book was in pretty good shape. It still had remnants of the library it once belonged to, but overall the book quality was great.

For students in the middle grades or higher, Lyddie is a great read. It is a valuable resource for a social studies unit on slavery, the industrial revolution, the labor movement, yellow fever, or child labor. Lyddie is a symbol of strength, determination, and freedom. Paterson has created a strong central character and even though so much history is going on around her, it is on Lyddie that we continually focus our attention. I highly recommend book; very inspiring.

Lyddie is beautifully and precisely written and features an incredibly strong sense of place and time. The narrative is constructed in parallel with the plot, the characterization is strong and the characters are all believable and appropriate to their role in the novel. It would be nearly impossible to improve this book.

The story of Lyddie is interesting, engaging, and compelling. The plot unfolds at the right pace with enough tension to preserve interest and enough exposition to give the right amount of texture. This historical elements are precise and interesting--the most memorable portions of the narrative are a fusion of the story with the historical time and place. Factory life and social life descriptions are fascinating and convincing.

This short novel is usually classified as "juvenile" fiction, which is perhaps appropriate in many ways. But don't let that keep you from reading and enjoying this incredible novel. No matter your age, it will be an engaging and memorable read.