Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Nory Ryan's Song
Book Review: Nory Ryan's Song a review by Emily
Summary: 4 Stars
Were you ever willing to do anything just to help a friend? Well Nory Ryan, the protagonist, in Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff did. Her friend, Cat Neely, and her mother didn't have enough money to pay the rent, so Nory did everything and anything to get the money that Cat needed. She even asked one of her other friends if she had the extra money that Cat needed.One of my favorite parts of this book is when Nory and her family went to Patrick's Well and everyone had to drop something in the well. Nory didn't know what to drop in the well, so she dropped a piece of her hair in. Everyone else dropped something in the well that they didn't want anymore.
Another one of my favorite events was when Nory was walking down the road, and she came across Cat Neely and her mother. They were sitting in their front yard with their hair in their face. Mrs. Ryan told Nory that they didn't have enough money to pay their rent. Nory felt really bad, so she did everything and anything to get the money that they needed. She even asked one of her other friends if she had the money for Cat.
In conclusion, I really loved reading this book. I recommend this book to anyone that likes reading old-fashioned books. Personally, this book was really fun to read. So, if you want to find out the end to her adventures read Nory Ryan's Song.
Book Review: Nory Ryans Song
Summary: 4 Stars
Nory has hopes for her family and she wants to see them once more.She lives in this little town in Ireland,it was known for their great potatoes , but they had a situation with the potatoes. All of the sudden people began to starve and the people are just drinking warm and dirty water for breakfast,lunch,and dinner.What will happen to them?Will they starve?Will they get better?I dont know ,that is why you should read this great book.I like this book because it is based on a real world event. I liked it bcause it wasvery interesting to know how people tried to survive in Ireland. There was a rich guy named,Cunningham. He was watching all those people straving and he didn't do a dran thing to help them. There was markets around but nobody bought anything because they didn't have any money to buy anything.
I would recommend this book to young adults becasue this is no book for kids, because it is short but kind of complicated so I think that this book would mostly be for young adults,because I think that most of them will get the message easier than kids.I also think they will get sucked by this book right away when they get it and start reading it. So I recommend you read great this great amazing book.
Book Review: Potato Famine
Summary: 4 Stars
Nory is a typical twelve-year-old girl living in Ireland in the mid-1800s. Her mother died giving birth to her little brother, so she and her two older sisters and grandfather take care of each other while her father leaves on long fishing trips to earn their rent money. The English lord who owns their land, though, would rather they couldn't pay their rent. Then he would be free to destroy their home and use that land for his sheep to graze.
Things have gone reasonably well for awhile, though, and Nory's family has been able to pay their rent and live mostly off of the potatoes that are planted in their yard. Nory's oldest sister is saving up money to marry a neighbor. Then one of their other neighbors falls too far behind on rent and can't stop the lord from destroying her home. Nory's sister is worried, and she and her fiance use their money to take a ship to the United States, to try to find a better life there.
After Nory's sister leaves, things get even worse. Her father is taking much longer to return from fishing than he usually does, and the lord has come to their home to warn them about not paying their rent. Then all of the potatoes in their yard and the yards of their neighbors turn black and give off a horrible smell. There is no way they can be eaten, but the people have no other food. Will Nory and her family be able to survive?
I liked the history behind this book. It was interesting to read what life was like in Ireland, and to see what people may have been thinking when the potato famine hit. I liked the character of Anna. She was strong and sympathetic although she must have been suffering herself.
I didn't like the idea that everyone thought life in America would be so much better than life in Ireland. I know my history, and know that things weren't much better for the Irish immigrants in America.
Book Review: Talissa's book review
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is about were a girl named Nory and her family are going through a rough time becausse there is a potato deease going arournd and thaat makes it were they dont have anything to eat for the winter so they run out of money and have to pay lord cunnigham their chicken and pigglets beccause her dad hasn't came home from his job on a boat . So her father and sister go looking for him and she is stuck looking after her little brother . She ends up falling in love with a young boy and he ends up moving to America after her older sister Maggie moves to America to but she has a old lady and they take care of each other and finally at the end of the storie her father ends up sending tickets to America for Nory and her little brother .She invites Anna the old lady but she is stubern and wont go . Nory ends up getting married to the man and they have 3 childern . this book was really good and if i was you i read it because even i dont read but my teacher made us for a bookreport so read it its really good.Book Review: The English holocaust
Summary: 4 Stars
It seems uniquely challenging. The idea of making a readable children's book out of something so bleak and depressing as the Irish Potato Famine. Yet as an author, Giff has never shied away from difficult subjects. Whether you're following the trials of a 1870 German immigrant to Brooklyn in "The House of Tailors", or a 1940's Hungarian escapee in "Lily's Crossing", Giff has become one of those go-to historical fiction writers. With an emphasis on immigration, emigration, and forced transplantation, her books strain to find a balance between absolute historical accuracy and something your ten-year-old would actually (willingly) pick up on their own. Personally, when I was ten years of age I wouldn't have picked up "Nory Ryan's Song" for all the gold in King Solomon's mines. For those children that have strong stomachs and even stronger nerves, however, the book is a distinctly well-written explanation of why many of us in America sport Irish-American heritage.
Yeah, Nory's got a pretty nice life. True, her mother's dead and her father's away at sea to fish and pay the family's bills. Still, she has her two older sisters, her grandfather, her little brother Patch, and her best friend Sean to keep her company. And then one day she detects an odd smell in the air.... And even odder screams of panic from over the hills. The smell, as it turns out, is that of potatoes dying of a particularly nasty blight. The screams are the people who realize that death is staring them in the face. Before she knows it, Nory's potato patch is infested as well and the family is left with zero food to get by on. The English lord, Cunningham, who owns the land isn't about to show any mercy to his Irish tenants, and people begin to grow more and more desperate as he takes their lifestock for rent. In the end, Nory must decide what's most important to her as she takes amazing risks to find a way to keep the people she loves alive.
In writing this tale, Giff fast-forwards the tragedy a bit more than is strictly necessary. For example, the residents of Nory's village discover the potato blight one day and exactly two days later literally everybody's starving. Surely they weren't eating the underripe potatoes until now. It seems an odd way to write the book. Of course there's no faulting the language. Giff knows how to write something gripping and more than a little compelling. She parallels Nory's desperation with the hope that her father will, soon, return with money for food. Still, there are some moments in the book where it gets so downright depressing that it's all the reader can do to keep slogging on. For some kids, of course, this is a bonus. And certainly it would have been a far greater crime if Giff had played off the entire tragedy in a happy-go-lightly manner. All I'm saying is that this book, rather than being required reading for EVERY child in a certain grade, should only be given to kids who already enjoy historical fiction, tragedy, and a strong female narrator.
It's difficult to fault this novel. Giff knows from whence she writes and nobody in her field does a better job of describing degradation. No one. I don't see this book as the most pleasurable reading out there, but it's undoubtedly one of the best written. For the full effects of the Irish Potato Famine, there is nowhere else to turn.