Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Nory Ryan's Song
Book Review: Book review of Nory Ryan's Song
Summary: 4 Stars
Welcome to Nory Ryan's Song by Patrica Reilly Giff... In this book there is this girl named Nory and she is a good,caring, and strong girl. But the town is kind of a poor town that has only potatoes as their main food. But this time was the "Potatoe Famine" time which means the potatoes rote and no food means starvation! And Da doesn't come home with the fishes that he'd catch. So they just have to eat very little and wait for a miracle to happen.The things I liked in this book was that it told me about the history of the potatoe famine in Ireland. Another thing i liked about this book is it had a pretty good ending and it is kind of like a friendship book. And it also talks about the authors familys life in Ireland when all this happened. And I liked this book because it was based on a true story.
I recommend this book to the people who have good friends and to 7th graders. I would recommend this book to people that are Irish or people who want to know more about the history of the potatoe famine.
Book Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
I am taking my children to my Grandfather's home town in Ireland and to visit distant cousins. I bought the book to give them an idea of my great grandparents struggles. We read the book in a day and moved to Maggie's Door the next day. We all fell in love with Nory Ryan.
Book Review: Fantastic read! A book for all ages!
Summary: 5 Stars
Nory Ryan live in Ireland during the patatoe famine, life is already hard enough with their landlord kicking their neighbors out of their houses left and right. Nory becomes apprenticed to Anna a healer, even though most of the people in Nory's village ridicule Anna, Anna just wants Nory to learn her cures so she may help others as she has. Maggie (Nory sister) leaves for Brooklyn, America where Nory believes the streets are paved with gold. Everyone starts to leave Ireland because without potatoes they will starve. Soon Celia and Granda leave for America, leaving Patch and Nory behind. When Patch, Sean and Sean's Ma leave Norty is the only one of her family remaining in Ireland. Will Nory ever see her family again?
"Nory Ryan's Song" tells about how hard life must have for people during this time and how strong and brave they must have been. I recommend it for it all ages. It is thrilling but still teaches you something! For me it is a must-read!!!!!
Book Review: Historical Fiction at it's Best!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Nory Ryan's Song" is the kind of book that makes history come alive. A poignant story of the horrific devastation caused by the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840's, it nevertheless is imbued with the grit and determination of one young girl to see the beauty of life, and hope for the future. My 10 y.o. daughter chose this book for a historical fiction book report, and after several nights under the covers with a flashlight well past her bedtime, concluded it was easily the best book she has ever read. We both hope that the author, Patricia Reilly Giff, writes a sequel.Book Review: Irish need not apply
Summary: 5 Stars
"Irish need not apply." This was a common placard hanging in store windows in New York neighborhoods after the immigration of the Irish, following the Great Potato Blight and resulting famine in Ireland, 1845-1852. They arrived dirty, hungry, dressed in rags, carrying no possessions, and speaking a strange Celtic language. Too different from the American Dream to be part of it.
Nory Ryan's Song is a narrative explanation of how and why those Irish left their beloved land, starving and in rags, to claim the largesse America offered. Giff strikes exactly the right chord in balancing sickening details of the famine with respect for the sensibilities of a 9-12 audience.
This is the time of the great English take-over and their relentless effort to drive out the Irish from their own tiny plots of land. Not only did they take the land, they took animals, work tools, everything that gave the slightest hope of survival. No wonder the Irish have no fondness for the English. The expected Irish characters are present: the large Mallon family with an abundance of boys, the Ryans with an abundance of girls and one tiny boy, the feared local herbalist, the horrid English landlord and his henchman. Other books have portrayed famine and starvation with great conviction, but Giff makes us feel Nory's personal hunger and her powerful need to provide for others, like Queen Maeve of Irish legend.
But, oh, the desperation from a total lack of food and the human drive to live, thus the eternal ember of the hearth that Nory learns to tend after her last older sister leaves for New York. Nory Ryan is just a snippet of a twelve-year-old with a lyrical voice that stirs the most surprising people. After members one by one leave, Nory and Patch, her skin-and-bones brother, are left. Anna, the local herbalist, takes them in and teaches Nory healing skills, and wrings out one of the most touching instances of deep love in 9-12 literature.
The landscape, including animals, is just as much a character as the people. Giff's writing is so painterly that the reader is carried away with the saltiness of the winds, the putrid, rotting smell of the blighted potatoes, the wretched taste of the limpets taken from the sea, and the visual imagery of feet caked in dirt, ragged wisps of Patch's nightshirt that he wears 24/7, the razor sharp blades of grass that line the path to the ocean, the claws of the seabirds Nory tries to take from their nests.
Reviewers make much of the last part of the book when Nory finds a way to feed her remaining brood over the weeks they await either return of or word from her father. Her last efforts are no more heroic than the others. Each does what is required. Finally, word comes and she begins her journey to New York and the placards in the windows. She plans to meet milk wagons filled with cans of milk and streets filled with jewels. There is a sequel: Maggie's Door.
The book provides enough detail of the potato blight, the famine, the cruelty of the English for the impetus to read further. An author's delight. Giff's book is highly recommended.